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Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time Paperback – August 26, 2012

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A magnificent one-volume abridgement of one of the greatest literary biographies of our time Joseph Frank's award-winning, five-volume Dostoevsky is widely recognized as the best biography of the writer in any language―and one of the greatest literary biographies of the past half-century. Now Frank's monumental, 2,500-page work has been skillfully abridged and condensed in this single, highly readable volume with a new preface by the author. Carefully preserving the original work's acclaimed narrative style and combination of biography, intellectual history, and literary criticism, Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time illuminates the writer's works―from his first novel Poor Folk to Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov ―by setting them in their personal, historical, and above all ideological context. More than a biography in the usual sense, this is a cultural history of nineteenth-century Russia, providing both a rich picture of the world in which Dostoevsky lived and a major reinterpretation of his life and work.

• Print length 984 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Princeton University Press
• Publication date August 26, 2012
• Dimensions 6.25 x 2.5 x 9.25 inches
• ISBN-10 0691155992
• ISBN-13 978-0691155999
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

From the back cover.

"Although the pace has quickened, the serene and magnificent persistence that Joseph Frank brought to his five volumes resonates fully in this distilled story. If (as Frank tells us) Dostoevsky 'felt ideas,' then Frank 'feels biography' at any scale, with a perfect sense of proportion." --Caryl Emerson, Princeton University, author of The Cambridge Introduction to Russian Literature

"[This book] ensures Frank's status as the definitive literary biographer of one of the best fiction writers ever." --David Foster Wallace

"The editing and deep thought that have gone into this magnificent one-volume condensation of Frank's magnum opus are to be greatly admired. This is the best biography of Dostoevsky, the best reading of some of the major novels, the best cultural history of nineteenth-century Russia. Just the best." --Robin Feuer Miller, Brandeis University, author of Dostoevsky's Unfinished Journey

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press; Revised edition (August 26, 2012)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 984 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0691155992
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691155999
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 2.5 x 9.25 inches
• #47 in History & Criticism of Russian & Soviet Literature
• #557 in Author Biographies

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Joseph frank.

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The Best Fiction Books » Literary Figures

The best fyodor dostoevsky books, recommended by alex christofi.

Dostoevsky in Love: An Intimate Life

His father had clawed his way up into the minor aristocracy, but Fyodor Dostoevsky chose to live the life of an impecunious author. He was sentenced to death, but his execution was stayed and he spent years in a Siberian labour camp instead. His books are about human compassion, but he was a difficult man who had trouble with his own personal relationships. Alex Christofi , author of a brilliant new biography of Dostoevsky , one of Russia's greatest novelists, recommends five books to learn more about the man and his work—including the novel of which Tolstoy said he ‘didn’t know a better book in all our literature’.

Interview by Cal Flyn , Deputy Editor

Lectures on Dostoevsky by Joseph Frank

Memoirs from the House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Jessie Coulson

Dostoevsky: Reminiscences by Anna Dostoevsky

The Master of Petersburg: A Novel by J M Coetzee

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

1 Lectures on Dostoevsky by Joseph Frank

2 memoirs from the house of the dead by fyodor dostoevsky, translated by jessie coulson, 3 dostoevsky: reminiscences by anna dostoevsky, 4 the master of petersburg: a novel by j m coetzee, 5 crime and punishment by fyodor dostoevsky.

Y ou are the author of a new biography of Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1861) . It’s a book that intertwines the narrative of his life with his own words, taken from where his fiction has been drawn from lived experience, which is such a great way to do a literary biography. Having devoted all this time to his life and work, can you outline for our readers Dostoevsky’s significance as a writer?

He’s also  sometimes criticised, I think fairly, as being verbose or digressive. Because he was always broke, and he was paid by the page, most of his best known novels are understandably quite long. Those are some of the reasons why people feel intimidated by him as a writer. They don’t quite know their way in.

But what I think is really interesting about Dostoevsky, and speaks to modern readers, is that he’s concerned not with the aristocracy but with the vulnerable people of society, whether that’s serfs, people forced into prostitution, or the disabled, or the poor. So he’s looking at society in a completely different way to many of his peers.

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And, aside from being a magnetic writer, he has a huge amount to say about the human condition: what makes us good, whether it makes sense to believe in God… there are all these universal questions across his writing that I think speak to a modern audience. His are really interesting precursors to the modern novel.

So part of my idea was to try to rehabilitate him in the popular imagination, as a writer who’s had a really incredible life, but also has a lot to say in the here and now. He’s not just a historical relic.

Absolutely. Crime and Punishment is arguably Dostoevsky’s most famous book. Do you think it’s the best place to start, for someone coming fresh to his writing?

Not necessarily. He’s actually written some great short stories and novella-length work. So you could read something quite short, like Notes from the Underground , which is probably only 60 pages. It’s a super-intense, sometimes very funny, deeply absurd and weird little book. It packs so many ideas into a short space.

He’s also got a wonderful story from early in his career called The Double . It’s farcical, almost in the style of Nikolai Gogol, whom he admired a lot. It’s not long and great fun to read. So it depends what you’re most attracted to.

Well, the first of the books you’ve selected is Lectures on Dostoevsky , by Joseph Frank. Why do you recommend it?

‘Lectures’ makes it sound more academic than it is, in a way. Joseph Frank was probably the leading scholar on Dostoevsky working in any language. He wrote an incredible five-volume biography of Dostoevsky , probably 2500-pages long. It took about 25 years to finish. He worked at Princeton and later Stanford, and he created this undergraduate lecture series, to bring people up to speed in a short space of time. These lectures were published for the first time at the end of 2019.

They’re a really good way to start learning about Dostoevsky, because he gives you just enough to really understand where he was coming from at these different moments in his life. It doesn’t cover all his books, but the important ones – with the notable exception of Devils – including his first and last work. So you could read this pretty short book and get a good sense of the man and the world he was born into. And you’re getting it from one of the world’s leading experts.

As a starting point, I think Lectures on Dostoevsky is more accessible than that vast biography might be.

I agree. But the mere existence of a five-volume biography gestures towards Dostoevsky’s remarkably eventful life. Could you give us a potted summary?

Yes. Let me give you the three-minute version.

Dostoevsky was born in a hospital for the poor. His father was a doctor, and had just about managed to climb onto the lowest rung of the hereditary nobility, basically through hard work, firstly as an army surgeon. So Fyodor grew up on the grounds of this hospital, looking out of the window at all these sick people in dressing gowns.

It wasn’t a particularly lovely childhood, but they did manage to buy this very rundown estate outside of Moscow. He loved going there in the summer with his mother. Unfortunately, while he was still pretty young, his mother died of consumption and the estate burned down in an accidental fire. Later his father died – either from alcoholism or because he was murdered by his peasants, who hated him.

“He became a literary sensation, literally overnight”

Dostoevsky ends up in an engineering academy in St Petersburg, but he really wanted to be a novelist. He just about finished his degree, but anyone who knows anything about him would be terrified to walk on a bridge made by Dostoevsky, put it that way. It would be a structural nightmare.

He quickly decided he would rather be poor, as long as he could be a writer. He wrote his first book, Poor Folk , and gave it to a friend of a friend who worked for a magazine one day in spring – during those lovely white nights that you get in St Petersburg, where it barely gets dark. He gave it to the guy, went out and had some drinks, came home at 4am. And the critic burst into the room, telling him he’s a literary genius and that he’s already shared a copy with the most important critic in all of Russia . Six hours later, the other critic agreed. Suddenly he was a literary sensation. Literally overnight.

Oh wow. The dream.

Well, he fell out with those friends quite quickly, and ended up in a second literary circle, which was more dangerous and plotting revolution… basically he fell in with the wrong crowd. He was caught, sentenced to death, subjected to a mock execution and sent off for years of hard labour in Siberia. So he was out there in the freezing cold, pounding alabaster and breaking up barges for several years.

Released as an army private, he fell in love with someone else’s wife, Maria. That guy also died of alcoholism, so he married her – but they had a deeply unhappy marriage. He managed to get back to St Petersburg, where he wrote these amazing memoirs of his time in prison, which became a total sensation and rehabilitated his literary reputation.

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From there he was well-known and well-respected as a writer, pretty much until the end of his life.  But his personal life was still very choppy. He had an affair with a young student called Polina, and ran away to Europe with her–but she was just stringing him along. He became a gambling addict, lost all his money and his beloved brother died. He was completely penniless, so he wrote a novel called The Gambler to pay off his debts; in doing that, he’d given himself such a tight deadline that he hired a stenographer so that he could actually write it in the month he had – and got on really well with her. They went on to have four children, although two of them died.

In the 1870s, he developed emphysema and his health worsened, but at least he was happy in love for that last decade of his life. So, yes. Pretty eventful. Writers are generally known for being sat at their desks writing for most of the time. I think he bucks the trend.

You chose to call your book Dostoevsky in Love . Can you tell us a little about that decision?

Yes. There were two types of love that I wanted to talk about.

Recent biographies have been very keen to talk about him as an intellectual, and I think most people – at least in terms of the general readership – don’t know much about his personal life. It’s a shame, because he had such a fascinating life and it makes a great story.

There’s another kind of love, maybe a gentler definition, which is about how he thought we could try to create a world that we all want to live in; that is, Christian love, compassion. He believed strongly that the world isn’t about good and bad people. It’s about the struggle in each person to act well or badly. We all have the capacity to do either. He really wanted to foster the instinct for love in his readers. I think that’s one of the best ways to read him consistently across his work.

As you mentioned, he has a very varied output, but it’s this worldview that brings it together?

The next book you want to recommend is Memoirs from the House of the Dead , by Dostoevsky himself. You’ve specified the translation by Jessie Coulson.

During his lifetime, it was thought to be one of the most important books he’d written. Tolstoy didn’t have a huge amount of praise for his rivals, but when he read House of the Dead he said he “didn’t know a better book in all our literature.”

People think of Dostoevsky as writing these almost melodramatic plots with a large cast, what’s been described as ‘fantastic realism.’ It’s an intensified version of reality. Whereas House of the Dead is journalism, really, but it couldn’t be called that at the time so it’s framed as a novel. It’s part of a genre called Zapiski, which means ‘notes’ or ‘scribbles’. It’s nominally about a third person, but it’s obviously heavily influenced by his experience in prison. I don’t think you could have later writers like Solzhenitsyn without this book.

“He’d win arguments by pulling up his trouser leg, showing the scars from his shackles”

It’s also not very well known to English readers, and it’s a good way of understanding what Dostoevsky went through, how he became the writer that his contemporaries saw him as. He would go to literary salons and people revered him because of what he had been through; he’d win arguments by pulling up his trouser leg, showing the scars from his shackles… it was a big part of who he was, and his literary persona.

It’s also just a great book. There are incredible scenes – my favourite is a bathhouse scene, in a traditional Russian steam room. They’re all slapping themselves with birch twigs, about 80 prisoners crammed in a five by five metre cube. Grime is washing off them onto the people crouching below. He describes the sludge on the floor as being an inch thick, they’re slipping around in it and their chains are getting caught up in each other’s. And as they slap themselves with the birch twigs, you see all the scars from their various lashings and other corporal punishments getting redder and redder. That scene will stay with you forever.

That autofictional element, the crossover between Dostoevsky’s fiction and the events of his life, forms the basis of your book. Could you talk more about these commonalities?

Even his first biographers noted that there were very close relations between his life and some of the subjective passages scattered through his fiction. Other academics have noted that he made use of his life experience, mobilising it as a way of showing his authenticity. A good example is when he talks about what it’s like for the condemned man in the last minute of his life: anyone reading that passage for the first time would have known that it was something he spoke about from experience, that mock execution.

Well sure. And given how eventful a life it was, it would be a waste if he didn’t make the most of it in his writing. But let’s talk about book three, Dostoevsky: Reminiscences , by Anna Dostoevsky, his second wife. The book’s translated by Beatrice Stillman.

Anna was vital in securing his legacy after he died. And it was Anna who was the love of his life. She’s written these Reminiscences of her time with him, and there are so many lovely insights into their relationship and the kind of person he was.

She was a stenographer so she wrote in shorthand, which meant she was writing a lot of these notes in real time, with Dostoevsky in the same room. You know: ‘He’s just annoyed me by spending all this money at the roulette table.’ He didn’t know what she was writing, so she was extraordinarily candid—more than you might expect, even from a diary format.

So we have real insight into what it was like to live with the guy, and it’s fascinating because novelists tend to have high ideals, and most of us find it hard to live up to our own ideals. It would be a sad thing if our ideals weren’t higher than our practice, but it does give you a sense of what it was like to live with a man who I think anyone would accept could be difficult company.

“The world isn’t about good and bad people. It’s about the struggle in each person to act well or badly.”

But their love for each other is genuinely really touching. The way he proposed was quite beautiful, he basically told her he was planning a new book, but he didn’t know if it was realistic, and he asked for her opinion. ‘There’s this sick old man, who’s kind of talented but never really found his moment. And he meets this young girl.’ And Anna said: ‘oh, is she handsome?’ and he said, ‘Well, not particularly, but she has a good soul and a good heart.’ The charmer.

He goes on: ‘is it reasonable to expect that such a lovely young woman could love an old, sick, poor man with no prospects?’ and she says, ‘well, if he has a good heart, that’s the main thing. I mean, does anyone love anyone for their riches?’ You’re thinking, bless you. Yes.

Anyway, eventually he says it. ‘What if that old man were me, and that young woman were you, and I asked for your hand. What would you say?’ She said: ‘I will love you for the rest of my life.’ That’s how they got married.

Terribly romantic. And what about the book that brought them together? The Gambler.  Did it pay off his debts?

It paid off that particular debt. The contract was with a thoroughly evil publisher called Stellovsky. Dostoevsky borrowed 3,000 rubles from the man, on the condition that he write a new novel for him in 12 months, otherwise he’d forfeit all his copyrights for the next nine years. Dostoevsky spent the next eleven months writing Crime and Punishment instead, then in the 11th month, he tried to ask for a deadline extension and Stellovsky said, ‘no, no. This is all just a tactic, I want your copyrights.’

Absolutely. Apparently Kazuo Ishiguro wrote The Remains of the Day in four intense weeks. It boggles the mind. Anyway, we’ll come to Crime and Punishment in just a minute, but first let’s talk about The Master of Petersburg , by J. M. Coetzee.

This is one of the books that inspired me to write mine. In The Master of Petersburg, Coetzee basically creates a fictional version of Dostoevsky who goes to St Petersburg from his exile in Europe with Anna, because his stepson has died in mysterious circumstances. In real life, Dostoevsky did have a stepson who he didn’t get on particularly well with. They had a rocky relationship.

So Coetzee’s created a sort of counterfactual, partly inspired – sadly – by his own son falling from an 11th-floor balcony. That plays into the emotional truth of this amazing novel, which also vividly evokes the atmosphere of the time – all these little alleyways and small courtyards where people are hanging out their laundry, the sights and sounds and smells of St Petersburg of the time. It’s a brilliant, atmospheric way of bringing this period to life.

I think it’s very true to the atmosphere of Dostoevsky’s life, and the way he thought about St Petersburg. Admittedly it’s brave to veer completely off script and create a new version – it’s not a historical novel, it’s very much a fictional novel. And that kind of gave me permission to conceive of a book about Dostoevsky as something more creative than the trainlines set out in a conventional biography.

Do you think a reader can gain understanding of Dostoevsky as a real person from a work of fiction like this?

I think that brings us to Crime and Punishment . As you’ve already mentioned, Dostoevsky was writing this book at a time in his life when he was under a great deal of financial and emotional stress. It’s become a great classic, but I suspect more people have it on their bookshelf than have read it. So: is it worth it? Why should people read Crime and Punishment?

It’s definitely worth it. It’s hard to choose only five books. The temptation is just to put down Dostoevsky’s five long novels and say, look, here’s your reading list, off you go. Some people will be upset that I haven’t included The Brothers Karamazov , which in some ways is the culmination of his work.

I think Crime and Punishment is probably his most conventional novel. It’s effectively a sort of literary crime novel, and is in some ways quite typical of its time. It’s got a fascinating structure, where a full 80% of the novel comes after he’s committed the crime but before he reaches the punishment. So for the majority of the novel, you are in suspense and, despite the title, a part of you genuinely believes he might get away with it. It’s a real literary feat, I think, to bring you onside with a guy whose avowed mission is to kill an old woman with an axe. If you think about what his contemporaries were doing, I think it’s an incredible novel – in terms of the precedents that are set and the boundaries of what the novel can be and how risky it can be. It also explores a lot of the themes that preoccupy him in a really fine resolution.

One thing I wanted to mention: I recommend this specific translation by Oliver Ready, because his new translation gives us the clearest possible sense of how vivid the language can be. There has been a whole, long, troubled translation history of Dostoevsky, and huge arguments over whether you should be literal or true to the spirit. I think if you haven’t picked up a Dostoevsky book and enjoyed it, Oliver Ready’s translation is where you should go to get a sense of what he can do as a writer. Ready’s equal to the task of translating Dostoevsky. It’s an incredible edition.

Great tip, thank you. And – just as a sidebar – do you have a particular translation of The Brothers Karamazov that you favour?

This is just my personal taste, but I really like Constance Garnett’s . She’s quite true to Dostoevsky’s Victorian style. She’s not perfect, though. The other major translation was by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky . Debate rages over which of these is better. In general terms, I’d say Garnett is a bit more graceful at the expense of sometimes smoothing over rough patches, and the Pevear-Volokhonsky is maybe truer to the original. But some people find that literal-ness to get in the way of the reading experience. I personally prefer Garnett.

Finally, could you tell us what Dostoevsky has come to mean to you?

What’s been fascinating about immersing myself in his writing for the last few years has been watching someone tackle some of the biggest questions we face as a species. You know: what it means to be good, the existence of God, how to create a functioning society. And a number of questions we still wrestle with, like free speech . Watching him get closer and closer to his perfect argument, or his best articulation and never quite feeling that he’s reached it. But there’s this incredibly satisfying feeling of him spiralling around the truth, getting ever closer.

I don’t think it’s possible to pinpoint the one perfect sentence that will solve everything. But I do think that endeavour is worthwhile, and something we could all aspire towards.

February 8, 2021

Five Books aims to keep its book recommendations and interviews up to date. If you are the interviewee and would like to update your choice of books (or even just what you say about them) please email us at [email protected]

Alex Christofi

Alex Christofi is Editorial Director at Transworld and the author of the novels Let Us Be True and Glass , winner of the Betty Trask Prize for fiction. He has written for numerous publications including The Guardian , The London Magazine, New Humanist, The White Review and the Brixton Review of Books , and contributed an essay to the anthology What Doesn't Kill You: Fifteen Stories of Survival . Dostoevsky in Love is his first work of non-fiction.

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Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time

A magnificent one-volume abridgement of one of the greatest literary biographies of our time

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Joseph Frank’s award-winning, five-volume Dostoevsky is widely recognized as the best biography of the writer in any language—and one of the greatest literary biographies of the past half-century. Now Frank’s monumental, 2,500-page work has been skillfully abridged and condensed in this single, highly readable volume with a new preface by the author. Carefully preserving the original work’s acclaimed narrative style and combination of biography, intellectual history, and literary criticism, Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time illuminates the writer’s works—from his first novel Poor Folk to Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov —by setting them in their personal, historical, and above all ideological context. More than a biography in the usual sense, this is a cultural history of nineteenth-century Russia, providing both a rich picture of the world in which Dostoevsky lived and a major reinterpretation of his life and work.

Awards and Recognition

• Co-Winner of the Etkind Prize, European University at St. Petersburg
• Awards for Frank's Dostoevsky Volumes: National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography 1984 - Los Angeles Times Book Prize - 2 James Russell Lowell Prizes - 2 Christian Gauss Awards

"A monumental achievement. . . This is not a literary biography in the usual sense of the term. . . . It is, rather, an exhaustive history of Dostoyevsky's mind, an encyclopedic account of the author as major novelist and thinker, essayist and editor, journalist and polemicist. . . . Wrought with tireless love and boundless ingenuity, it . . . [is] a multifaceted tribute from an erudite and penetrating cultural critic to one of the great masters of 19th-century fiction."—Michael Scammell, New York Times Book Review

"It is unquestionably the fullest, most nuanced and evenhanded—not to mention the most informative—account of its subject in any language, and it has significantly changed our understanding of both the man and his work."—Donald Fanger, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"In his aim of elucidating the setting within which Dostoevsky wrote—personal on the one hand, social, historical, cultural, literary, and philosophical on the other—Frank has succeeded triumphantly."—J. M. Coetzee, New York Review of Books

" Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time thus immediately becomes the essential one-volume commentary on the intellectual dynamics and artistry of this great novelist's impassioned, idea-driven fiction. . . . To understand Dostoevsky's often savage satire or nightmarish visions or just the conversations among the Karamazov brothers, one needs to grasp not only the text but also the ideological context. To both of these there is no better guide than Joseph Frank."—Michael Dirda, Wall Street Journal

"Magnificent. . . . A deeply absorbing account."—James Wood, New Republic

"The ideal one-volume biography of Dostoevsky could only come through a distillation of the much-acclaimed five-volume biography (1976-2002) by Joseph Frank. In compressing his longer work, editor Mary Petrusewicz tightens the rigor of a narrative that already departed from traditional biography by focusing chiefly on the ideas with which the Russian author wrestled so powerfully, providing the details of his personal life only as incidental background. Thus, for example, while readers do learn of formative incidents during Dostoevsky's four years in tsarist prison camp, what they see most clearly is how the prison experience deepened the author's faith in God while dampening his zeal for political reform. In a similar way, Frank limns only briefly the life experiences surrounding the writing of the major novels— Crime and Punishment , Demons , and Brothers Karamazov —devoting his scrutiny largely to how Dostoevsky develops the ideological tensions within each work. Readers consequently see, for instance, how Napoleonic illusions justify Raskolnikov's bloody crimes, how the Worship of Man dooms Kirillov to suicide, and how deep Christian faith enables Alyosha to resist Ivan's corrosive rationalism. Yet while probing Dostoevsky's themes, Frank also examines the artistry that gives them imaginative life, highlighting—for example—perspectival techniques that anticipate those of Woolf and Joyce. A masterful abridgement."—Bryce Christensen, Booklist

"Frank displays a brilliant command of Dostoyevsky's heroic endeavors, and his biography reads readily, especially for such a scholarly work. It compares nicely with Leon Edel's multivolume biography of Henry James. Highly recommended."—Robert Kelly, Library Journal

"It is wonderfully lucidly written and a marvellous portrait of the man behind the books."—Nadine Gordimer, Independent

"This extraordinary biography succeeds in making both irony and great ideas wholly alive, immediately accessible to us. It is a great work, both of scholarship and of art."—A. S. Byatt, Sunday Times

"A narrative of such compelling precision, thoroughness and insight as to give the reader a sense not just of acquaintanceship, but of complete identification with Dostoevsky, of looking through his eyes and understanding with his mind."—Helen Muchnic, Boston Globe

"One of the finest achievements of American literary scholarship."—René Wellek, Washington Post Book World

" Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time at last offers non-specialist readers access to the definitive biography of an important figure in the history of the novel. . . . Patient, cautious, critical but not judgmental, using clear language and a chronologically ordered narrative structure, Frank neutralises the unreliable and hysterical self-constructions of which his subject was capable. The result is like watching an artist building an intricate, large-scale painting around a single figure. . . . Frank's great insight is that, just as no one aspect of Dostoevsky's complex personality can be separated from the others, no part of his writing—whether aesthetic, moral, religious or political—can be quarantined from the others. Frank's biography honours the polyphony of Dostoevsky's novelistic imagination: even in truncated form, it is a rare triumph."—Geordie Williamson, Australian

"Frank's monumental five-volume study of Dostoevsky deserves to be read, if only as an inspiring lesson about how much more thrilling a focus on ideas can be than the standard biography's obsession with the connections between creativity and the subject's personal life. The series has been condensed with incisive care and respect, giving those with limited time (and budget) a chance to engage with a revelatory vision of the Russian writer's enduring greatness."—Bill Marx, PRI's "The World"

"This is the Dostoevsky we encounter in Joseph Frank's superb Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time , a one-volume, 984-page condensation of Frank's five-volume biography of the author, written over the course of a long and distinguished career. . . . Few biographers could muster the intelligence and imagination needed to capture all this in a single tome. We should be grateful for Joseph Frank."—Peter Savodnik, Commentary

"With the publication of Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time earlier this year, a massive abridgement of five volumes written over three decades, Frank breaks once and for all with his early critic's stilted categories in portraying the human subject. His innovative method of biography, influenced heavily by literary criticism, starts with artistic expression and moves backward, seeking to carefully situate his subject within ideological context. . . . Without a doubt, the genius of Frank's form is in combining three modalities in crafting his narrative: literary criticism, social and intellectual history, and biography."—Aaron Stuvland, Politics and Culture

"Joseph Frank's magisterial five-volume biography of Dostoevsky—one of the exemplary achievements of our era—has invaluably been published in an abridged one-volume edition."—Jeff Simon, Buffalo News

"The depth of Frank's achievement is to put the writer and his work in social, political, ideological and historical context."—Jeff Baker, Oregonian

"Most of us spend much of our life trying to understand only a handful of people we know and love, in a span of time usually extending just three generations (from our parents to our children). Imagine, then, devoting your life to trying to make sense of one other person long dead, whom you had necessarily never met, with whom you may have nothing in common, and whose times and works must always seem elusive, encoded and frustratingly out of your reach. In a pursuit of that kind, Leon Edel trudged through five volumes on Henry James, Robert Caro is working away on his fourth installment of Lyndon Johnson's biography, and Edmund Morris is finalizing his third book on Teddy Roosevelt. Joseph Frank, though, trumps them all. After writing Feodor Dostoevsky's biography in five volumes, Frank and a gifted editor (Mary Petrusewicz) have now turned that massive, interminable endeavour into an abridged, accessible one-volume edition."—Mark Thomas, Canberra Times

"Joseph Frank, emeritus professor of Slavic and comparative literature at Stanford and Princeton universities, fully grasped the pressure of the political and religious issues seething in and around the visionary author to whom he dedicated his career. It took him five highly praised volumes and 26 years (1976-2002) to give a full account of Dostoevsky's life, works and times; this new, hefty condensation was done in collaboration with editor and Russian scholar Mary Petrusewicz, on condition that the original five volumes remain in print, available to anyone 'wishing for a wider horizon.' . . . Frank's magisterial homage deserves no less recognition."—Judith Armstrong, The Age

"Frank's five-volume biography has been called 'magisterial' and monumental,' as well as 'nuanced,' 'lucid' and 'penetrating.' The same might be said of this shorter version."—Marilyn McEntyre, Christian Century

"Frank's contribution to understanding Dostoevsky is no less than Dostoevsky's own gift to the world of literature."—Sarthak Shankar, Organiser

"Interspersed with others, it took me a while to read this altogether majestic book—but I'm so glad I did. [T]his tomb more than illuminates Dostoevsky's life vast array of brilliant writing."—David Marx, David Marx

"One of the greatest literary biographies ever written, Frank's five-volume account details the nearly unfathomable life and literary career of a writer who endured epilepsy and exile."—Jonathon Sturgeon, Flavorwire

"Although the pace has quickened, the serene and magnificent persistence that Joseph Frank brought to his five volumes resonates fully in this distilled story. If (as Frank tells us) Dostoevsky 'felt ideas,' then Frank 'feels biography' at any scale, with a perfect sense of proportion."—Caryl Emerson, Princeton University, author of The Cambridge Introduction to Russian Literature

"[This book] ensures Frank's status as the definitive literary biographer of one of the best fiction writers ever."—David Foster Wallace

"The editing and deep thought that have gone into this magnificent one-volume condensation of Frank's magnum opus are to be greatly admired. This is the best biography of Dostoevsky, the best reading of some of the major novels, the best cultural history of nineteenth-century Russia. Just the best."—Robin Feuer Miller, Brandeis University, author of Dostoevsky's Unfinished Journey

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote the classics Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. His work explored psychology and existentialism.

Who Was Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Quick facts.

FULL NAME: Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky BORN: November 11, 1821 DIED: February 9, 1881 BIRTHPLACE: Moscow

Born Nov. 11, 1821 in Moscow, Russia, Fyodor Dostoyevsky was educated at home until 1833. He studied to be a military engineer, but shortly after graduating decided to become a writer. He experienced traumatic events, including a mock execution and exile. His work explored the human condition and is credited with shaping existentialism. Crime and Punishment is one of his most well-known novels.

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Biography of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian Novelist

Author of 'Crime and Punishment'

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Fyodor Dostoevsky (November 11, 1821 – February 9, 1881) was a Russian novelist. His works of prose deal heavily with philosophical, religious, and psychological themes and are influenced by the complicated social and political milieu of nineteenth-century Russia.

Fast Facts: Fyodor Dostoevsky

• Full Name:  Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
• Known For:  Russian essayist and novelist
• Born:  November 11, 1821 in Moscow, Russia
• Parents:  Dr. Mikhail Andreevich and Maria (née Nechayeva) Dostoevsky
• Died: February 9, 1881 in St. Petersburg, Russia
• Education:  Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute
• Selected Works:   Notes from Underground  (1864), Crime and Punishment  (1866), The Idiot  (1868–1869), Demons  (1871–1872), The Brothers Karamazov  (1879–1880)
• Spouses:  Maria Dmitriyevna Isaeva (m. 1857–1864), Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina (m. 1867⁠–⁠1881)
• Children:  Sonya Fyodorovna Dostoevsky (1868–1868), Lyubov Fyodorovna Dostoevsky (1869–1926), Fyodor Fyodorovich Dostoevsky (1871–1922), Alexey Fyodorovich Dostoevsky (1875–1878)
• Notable Quote:  “Man is a mystery. It needs to be unravelled, and if you spend your whole life unravelling it, don't say that you've wasted time. I am studying that mystery because I want to be a human being.”

Dostoevsky descended from minor Russian nobility, but by the time he was born, several generations down the line, his direct family did not bear any titles of nobility. He was the second son of Mikhail Andreevich Dostoevsky and Maria Dostoevsky (formerly Nechayeva). On Mikhail’s side, the family profession was the clergy, but Mikhail instead ran away, broke ties with his family, and enrolled in medical school in Moscow , where he became first a military doctor and, eventually, a doctor at the Mariinsky Hospital for the poor. In 1828, he was promoted to collegiate assessor, which gave him status equal to certain nobles.

Along with his older brother (named Mikhail after their father), Fyodor Dostoevsky had six younger siblings, five of whom lived to adulthood. Although the family was able to acquire a summer estate away from the city, most of Dostoevsky’s childhood was spent in Moscow at the physician’s residence on the grounds of Mariinsky Hospital, which meant that he observed the sick and impoverished from a very young age. From a similarly young age, he was introduced to literature, beginning with fables , fairy tales , and the Bible, and soon branching out into other genres and authors.

As a boy, Dostoevsky was curious and emotional, but not in the best physical health. He was sent first to a French boarding school, then to one in Moscow, where he felt largely out of place among his more aristocratic classmates. Much like the experiences and encounters of his childhood, his life at boarding school later found its way into his writings.

Academia, Engineering, and Military Service

When Dostoevsky was 15, he and his brother Mikhail were both forced to leave their academic studies behind and begin pursuing military careers at St. Petersburg’s Nikolayev Military Engineering School, which was free to attend. Eventually, Mikhail was rejected for ill health, but Dostoevsky was admitted, albeit rather unwillingly. He had little interest in math, science, engineering, or the military as a whole, and his philosophical, stubborn personality didn’t fit in with his peers (although he did earn their respect, if not their friendship).

In the late 1830s, Dostoevsky suffered several setbacks. In the fall of 1837, his mother died of tuberculosis . Two years later, his father died. The official cause of death was determined to be a stroke, but a neighbor and one of the younger Dostoevsky brothers spread a rumor that the family’s serfs had murdered him. Later reports suggested that young Fyodor Dostoevsky suffered an epileptic seizure around this time, but the sources for this story were later proved unreliable.

After his father’s death, Dostoevsky passed his first set of exams and became an engineer cadet, which allowed him to move out of academy housing and into a living situation with friends. He often visited Mikhail, who had settled in Reval, and attended cultural events such as the ballet and the opera. In 1843, he secured a job as a lieutenant engineer, but he was already distracted by literary pursuits. He began his career by publishing translations; his first, a translation of Honoré de Balzac's novel Eugénie Grandet , was published in the summer of 1843. Although he published several translations around this time, none of them were particularly successful, and he found himself struggling financially.

Early Career and Exile (1844-1854)

• Poor Folk  (1846)
• The Double  (1846)
• "Mr. Prokharchin" (1846)
• The Landlady  (1847)
• "Novel in Nine Letters" (1847)
• "Another Man's Wife and a Husband under the Bed" (1848)
• "A Weak Heart" (1848)
• "Polzunkov" (1848)
• "An Honest Thief" (1848)
• "A Christmas Tree and a Wedding" (1848)
• "White Nights" (1848)
• "A Little Hero" (1849)

Dostoevsky hoped that his first novel, Poor Folk , would be enough of a commercial success to help pull him out of his financial difficulties, at least for the time being. The novel was completed in 1845, and his friend and roommate Dmitry Grigorovitch was able to help him get the manuscript in front of the right people in the literary community. It was published in January 1846 and became an immediate success, both critically and commercially. In order to focus more on his writing, he resigned his military position. In 1846, his next novel, The Double , was published.

As he immersed himself further in the literary world, Dostoevsky began embracing the ideals of socialism . This period of philosophical inquiry coincided with a downturn in his literary and financial fortunes: The Double was poorly received, and his subsequent short stories were as well, and he began suffering from seizures and other health problems. He joined a series of socialist groups , which provided him with assistance as well as friendship, including the Petrashevsky Circle (so named for its founder Mikhail Petrashevsky), who frequently met to discuss social reforms such as the abolition of serfdom and freedom of press and speech from censorship.

In 1849, however, the circle was denounced to Ivan Liprandi, a government official at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and accused of reading and circulating banned works that criticized the government. Fearing a revolution, the government of Tsar Nicholas I deemed these critics to be very dangerous criminals. They were sentenced to be executed and were only reprieved at the last possible moment when a letter from the tsar arrived just before the execution, commuting their sentences to exile and hard labor followed by conscription . Dostoyevsky was exiled to Siberia for his sentence, during which time he suffered several health complications but earned the respect of many of his fellow prisoners. 

Return From Exile (1854-1865)

• Uncle's Dream  (1859)
• The Village of Stepanchikovo (1859)
• Humiliated and Insulted (1861)
• The House of the Dead (1862)
• "A Nasty Story" (1862)
• Winter Notes on Summer Impressions  (1863)
• Notes from Underground (1864)
• "The Crocodile" (1865)

Dostoevsky completed his prison sentence in February 1854, and he published a novel based on his experiences, The House of the Dead , in 1861. In 1854, he moved to Semipalatinsk to serve out the rest of his sentence, forced military service in the Siberian Army Corps of the Seventh Line Battalion. While there, he began working as a tutor to the children of the nearby upper-class families.

It was in these circles that Dostoevsky first met Alexander Ivanovich Isaev and Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva. He soon fell in love with Maria, although she was married. Alexander had to take a new military posting in 1855, where he was killed, so Maria moved herself and her son in with Dostoevsky. After he sent a letter of formal apology in 1856, Dostoevsky had his rights to marry and to publish again restored; he and Maria married in 1857. Their marriage was not particularly happy, due to their differences in personality and his ongoing health problems. Those same health problems also led to him being released from his military obligations in 1859, after which he was allowed to return from exile and, eventually, move back to St. Petersburg.

He published a handful of short stories around 1860, including “A Little Hero,” which was the only work he produced while in prison. In 1862 and 1863, Dostoevsky took a handful of trips out of Russia and throughout western Europe. He wrote an essay, “Winter Notes on Summer Impressions,” inspired by these travels and critiquing a wide range of what he viewed as social ills, from capitalism to organized Christianity and more.

While in Paris, he met and fell in love with Polina Suslova and gambled away much of his fortune, which put him in a more severe situation come 1864, when his wife and brother both died, leaving him as the sole supporter of his stepson and his brother’s surviving family. Compounding matters, Epoch , the magazine he and his brother had founded, failed.

Successful Writing and Personal Turmoil (1866-1873)

• Crime and Punishment (1866)
• The Gambler  (1867)
• The Idiot (1869)
• The Eternal Husband  (1870)
• Demons  (1872)

Fortunately, the next period of Dostoevsky’s life was to be considerably more successful. In the first two months of 1866, the first installments of what would become Crime and Punishment , his most famous work, were published. The work proved incredibly popular, and by the end of the year, he had also finished the short novel The Gambler .

To complete The Gambler on time, Dostoevsky engaged the help of a secretary, Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina, who was 25 years younger than him. The following year, they were married. Despite the significant income from Crime and Punishment , Anna was forced to sell her personal valuables to cover her husband’s debts. Their first child, daughter Sonya, was born in March 1868 and died only three months later.

Dostoevsky completed his next work, The Idiot , in 1869, and their second daughter, Lyubov, was born later that same year. By 1871, however, their family was in a dire financial situation yet again. In 1873, they founded their own publishing company, which published and sold Dostoevsky’s latest work, Demons . Fortunately, the book and the business were both successful. They had two more children: Fyodor, born in 1871, and Alexey, born in 1875. Dostoevsky wanted to start a new periodical, A Writer's Diary , but he was unable to afford the costs. Instead, the Diary was published in another publication, The Citizen , and Dostoevsky was paid an annual salary for contributing the essays.

Declining Health (1874-1880)

• The Adolescent (1875)
• "A Gentle Creature" (1876)
• "The Peasant Marey" (1876)
• "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" (1877)
• The Brothers Karamazov (1880)
• A Writer's Diary  (1873–1881)

In March 1874, Dostoevsky decided to leave his work at The Citizen ; the stress of the work and the constant surveillance, court cases, and interference by the government proved too much for him and his precarious health to handle. His doctors suggested he leave Russia for a time to try to shore up his health, and he spent some months away before returning to St. Petersburg in July 1874. He eventually finished an ongoing work, The Adolescent , in 1875.

Dostoevsky continued working on his A Writer’s Diary , which included a range of essays and short stories surrounding some of his favorite themes and concerns. The compilation became his most successful publication ever, and he began receiving more letters and visitors than ever before. It was so popular, in fact, that (in a major reversal from his earlier life), he was summoned to the court of Tsar Alexander II to present him with a copy of the book and to receive the tsar’s request to help educate his sons.

Although his career was more successful than ever, his health suffered, with four seizures in the span of a single month in early 1877. He also lost his young son, Alexei, to a seizure in 1878. Between 1879 and 1880, Dostoevsky received a slew of honors and honorary appointments, including the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Slavic Benevolent Society, and the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale. When he was elected vice president of the Slavic Benevolent Society in 1880, he gave a speech that was praised widely but also criticized harshly, leading to further stress on his health.

Literary Themes and Styles

Dostoevsky was heavily influenced by his political, philosophical, and religious beliefs, which were in turn influenced by the situation in Russia during his time. His political beliefs were intrinsically tied to his Christian faith, which placed him in an unusual position: he decried socialism and liberalism as atheist and degrading to society as a whole, but also disapproved of more traditional arrangements like feudalism and oligarchy . Still, he was a pacifist and despised ideas of violent revolution. His faith and his belief that morality was the key to improving society are threaded through most of his writings.

In terms of writing style, Dostoevsky’s hallmark was his use of polyphony—that is, the weaving together of multiple narratives and narrative voices within a single work. Rather than have an overarching voice of the author who has all the information and steers the reader towards the “right” knowledge, his novels tend to simply present characters and viewpoints and let them develop more naturally. There is no one “truth” within these novels, which ties in closely with the philosophical bend to much of his work.

Dostoevsky’s works often explore human nature and all the psychological quirks of humankind. In some regards, there are Gothic underpinnings to these explorations, as seen in his fascination with dreams, irrational emotions, and the concept of moral and literal darkness, as seen in everything from The Brothers Karamazov to Crime and Punishment and more. His version of realism, psychological realism , was concerned particularly with the reality of the inner lives of humans, even more so than the realism of society at large.

On January 26, 1881, Dostoevsky suffered two pulmonary hemorrhages in quick succession. When Anna called for a doctor, the prognosis was very grim, and Dostoevsky suffered a third hemorrhage soon after. He summoned his children to see him before his death and insisted on the Parable of the Prodigal Son being read to them—a parable about sin, repentance, and forgiveness. Dostoevsky died on February 9, 1881.

Dostoevsky was buried in the Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Convent in St. Petersburg, in the same cemetery as his favorite poets, Nikolay Karamzin and Vasily Zhukovsky. The exact number of mourners at his funeral is unclear, as different sources have reported numbers as varied as 40,000 to 100,000. His gravestone is inscribed with a quote from the Gospel of John: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it dies, it bringeth forth much fruit.”

Dostoevsky’s particular brand of human-focused, spiritual, and psychological writing has played a part in inspiring a wide range of modern cultural movements, including surrealism, existentialism, and even the Beat Generation, and he is considered a major forerunner of Russian existentialism, expressionism, and psychoanalysis.

In general, Dostoevsky is considered one of the great authors of Russian literature . Like most writers, he was ultimately received with great praise alongside severe criticism; Vladimir Nabokov was particularly critical of Dostoevsky and of the praise with which he was received. On the opposite side of things, however, luminaries including Franz Kafka, Albert Einstein, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Ernest Hemingway all spoke of him and his writing in glowing terms. To this day, he remains one of the most widely-read and studied authors, and his works have been translated across the globe.

• Frank, Joseph. Dostoevsky: The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871–1881 . Princeton University Press, 2003.
• Frank, Joseph. Dostoevsky: The Seeds of Revolt, 1821–1849 . Princeton University Press, 1979.
• Frank, Joseph. Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time . Princeton University Press, 2009.
• Kjetsaa, Geir. Fyodor Dostoyevsky: A Writer's Life . Fawcett Columbine, 1989.
• The Greatest Works of Russian Literature Everyone Should Read
• Characters' Thoughts and Motivations in Psychological Realism
• "Crime and Punishment"
• Biography of Alexander II, Russia's Reformist Tsar
• Biography of Grigori Rasputin
• Biography of Leo Tolstoy, Influential Russian Writer
• Biography of Anastasia Romanov, Doomed Russian Duchess
• Biography of Henry Miller, Novelist
• Biography of Czar Nicholas II, Last Czar of Russia
• Timeline of the Russian Revolutions: 1905
• Biography of Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-American Novelist
• Biography of Kazimir Malevich, Russian Abstract Art Pioneer
• The Life and Works of Honoré de Balzac, French Novelist
• Biography of Ivan the Terrible, First Tsar of Russia
• Timeline of the Russian Revolutions: 1906 - 1913
• Biography of Herman Melville, American Novelist

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A Writer in His Time

• Joseph Frank
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• Language: English
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Copyright year: 2009
• Edition: With a New preface by the author
• Audience: General/trade;
• Main content: 984
• Other: 31 halftones.
• Keywords: Intelligentsia ; Russian culture ; Russian literature ; Ideology ; The Idiot ; Literature ; The Brothers Karamazov ; Poor Folk ; V. ; Notes from Underground ; Publication ; Atheism ; Newspaper ; Writing ; Serfdom ; Petrashevsky Circle ; Sensibility ; His Family ; Allusion ; Christianity ; Pity ; Poetry ; Novelist ; Romanticism ; Resentment ; Humiliation ; Demons (Dostoyevsky novel) ; Ibid (short story) ; Strakhov ; Hatred ; Censorship ; Bakunin ; The Russian Messenger ; Prince Myshkin ; Narrative ; The Other Hand ; Utopian socialism ; Populism ; Satire ; Suffering ; Stupidity ; Criticism ; Superfluous man ; Deed ; Superiority (short story) ; Westernizer ; Assassination ; Despotism ; Russians ; Evocation ; Russian Life ; Anecdote ; Katorga ; Political prisoner ; George Sand ; Søren Kierkegaard ; The Peasants ; New Generation (Malayalam film movement) ; The Grand Inquisitor ; Old Believers ; Nobility ; Alyosha Karamazov ; Imprisonment ; Parricide ; Short story ; Religion ; Secret police ; Sarcasm ; Irony ; Nihilism ; Prose ; Uncertainty ; Skepticism ; Sadness ; Radicalism (historical) ; Mock execution ; Calculation ; Moral responsibility ; Pochvennichestvo ; Awareness ; Jews ; Utilitarianism ; The Village of Stepanchikovo ; Slavery ; Irritability ; The House of the Dead (novel) ; I Wish (manhwa) ; Victor Hugo ; Constance Garnett ; Household ; Verisimilitude (fiction) ; Leo Tolstoy ; Alexander Herzen ; Peasant ; Winter Notes on Summer Impressions ; Illustration ; Theodicy ; Parody ; Nationality ; The Various
• Published: October 19, 2009
• ISBN: 9781400833412

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Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Best Books 📚

Take a look at four of Fyodor Dostoevsky's very best works. These works are universally adored for their literary quality and influence.

Quick Facts

Article written by Israel Njoku

Degree in M.C.M with focus on Literature from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Fyodor Dostoevsky achieved literary fame at an early period of his career, with his books displaying the psychological depth and maturity that has come to be associated with him. Over a long career of critical acclaim, a few books stand out.

The Brothers Karamazov

Written at the tail end of Dostoevsky’s life, The Brothers Karamazov represents a culmination of Dostoevsky’s most passionate ideas in their most mature form. Revolving around a patricide with three children and a lover at the very center, we are treated to a story that explores themes like faith, passion, justice, among others.  With typical insight and penetration, Fyodor Dostoevsky is able to bore deep into the recesses of the human psyche to create well-rounded and relatable characters. 

The story is about the impact of the murder of the patriarch, the irresponsible Pavlovich Karamazov, on his four children, from the passionate and tempestuous Dmitry, to the cold and rational Ivan, down to the pious Alyosha. It explores questions about the obligations of the parent, the husband, the intellectual, and the religious. There are questions asked about the fairness of God himself, the injustice of the world, and the defects in our just justice system.

Notes from Underground

Notes from Underground have been described as one of the first existentialist novels to surface. This work sees Dostoevsky use the character of a bitter and isolated middle-aged man to criticize certain liberal ideas like rational egoism, utilitarianism, the premium on logic, and a number of other ideas. 

The book is divided into two parts, with the first part taking us through a look down this unnamed “underground” man’s diaries containing his thoughts on a number of contemporary issues. His bitterness toward society, intense skepticism of human nature, and alienation are obvious. The second part of the book features a number of events that involve the narrator- events that drive him down this dark path of isolation and bitterness at humans. 

Crime and Punishment

Crime and Punishment is Dostoevsky’s most popular and widely read work. It features a young man’s corruption at the hands of harmful radical ideologies which drives him to commit murder and robbery. Primarily motivated by his desire to prove that he was superior and above conventional standards, the main character, Raskolnikov, ends up killing two women, one of whom he deems surplus to humanity’s requirements by virtue of her evil deeds.

Through his interaction with a wide variety of characters with a variety of predispositions, Raskolnikov comes to better understand himself and his motivations. Superior intellectual arguments eventually convince him of the folly of his ideas. The book represents Dostoevsky’s attempts to display the danger and folly of some of the radical ideas he came to discover when he returned to Russian society. 

The Idiot is another of Dostoevsky’s major works. It represents his attempt to portray a positively good man, essentially the closest approximation of a Christ-like character with the intent of observing how he would fare in an immoral and worldly society. 

This character, Prince Mushkin, because of his goodness and childlike innocence, is seen as an idiot by a worldly society who could not understand him. There is a sharp contrast between Mushkin’s perception of the world and those around him. 

Mishkin arrives in Saint Petersburg as a poor psychiatric patient with an inheritance he is yet to access. He is immediately thrust upon the vile politics and immoral social organization of the St. Petersburg society he goes to. He exerts a profound influence on this society, but rather than changing it for the better, it is he who is permanently damaged by the rot he encounters.

What book first brought Dostoevsky fame?

‘Poor Folks ‘. Dostoevsky’s first novel written between 1844-1845, ‘Poor Folks’ explores the romance between two poor distant cousins and was lauded as an important humanitarian and social novel by notable contemporary critics like Vissarion Belinsky and Alexander Herzen.

How long does it take Dostoevsky to write a novel?

The answer varies on the purpose and length of the novel. Dostoevsky wrote ‘The Gambler’ in just 26 days, but also spent roughly two years on ‘ The Brother’s Karamazov’.

Which novel is considered Dostoevsky’s greatest?

Although ‘ Crime and Punishment ‘ is his most popular, ‘ The Brothers Karamazov ‘ is often considered his best work, as it is a culmination of his ideas in their most mature and final form.

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Fyodor Dostoevsky

Great Russian writer

"To love someone means to see them as God intended them"

Date and place of birth:  October 30, 1821, Moscow Date and place of death:  January 28, 1881, St. Petersburg Occupation: novelist, translator, philosopher Movement: realism Genre: novel, novella, short story, poem Years of oeuvre: 1844-1880

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky is a classic of Russian and world literature, according to UNESCO, one of the most readable writers in the world. His most famous books, five books “Crime and Punishment” (1866), “The Idiot” (1868), “The Possessed” (1872), “Teenager” (1875), “The Brothers Karamazov” (1880).

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky was born in 1821 in the Moscow Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor in Tula Province. His father, Mikhail Andreevich, was a doctor at that hospital, and his mother, Maria Fyodorovna, came from a merchant family. The family lived in more than cramped conditions, the father of the family was a real tyrant, and Dostoevsky’s mother passed away early.

In 1837 Fyodor Dostoevsky and his brother Mikhail moved to St. Petersburg, where after a brief training in a boarding school he entered the Military Engineering School. Dostoevsky called the years of study “hard labor”, he had no interest in military affairs, and devoted most of his time to literature – he read books by Shakespeare, Goethe, Balzac, Hugo, adored the German playwright Schiller, Pushkin and Gogol. After graduating from college in 1843 Fyodor Dostoevsky was enrolled in the St. Petersburg engineering command, but after six months in the rank of lieutenant retired.

Dostoevsky, the novice writer

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky wrote his first book, Poor People, in 1846. His friend, the writer Dmitry Grigorovich, persuaded him to show the manuscript to Nekrasov, who was publishing the literary magazine Sovremennik at the time. After reading it with the words “A new Gogol has appeared!” Nekrasov took the text to Belinsky, who came to indescribable delight. Dostoevsky would later describe his memories of the meeting with the critic in his book The Writer’s Diary. The success of Poor People was tumultuous, but short-lived. The second story “The Double” (1846) was received coldly, which struck at the ego of Dostoevsky, who already imagined himself a great writer.

Crime and punishment for unwanted views

Beginning in 1847, Dostoevsky began attending radical meetings at the Butashevich-Petrashevsky house, where they often criticized the government. For which he was later arrested and sentenced to eight years of hard labor in Siberia. He described his impressions in Notes from the Dead House (1862), where he also wrote Stepanchikovo Village (1859). In Siberia Fyodor Dostoevsky got married, but the marriage was short-lived. In 1855, Nicholas I died, and his son Alexander II, who granted amnesty to many prisoners, ascended the throne. Among them was Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Birth of a classic of world literature

After his amnesty, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky returned to St. Petersburg, where he and his brother began to publish the literary and political magazine Vremya. It was here that “Notes from the Underground” and “The Humiliated and Insulted” were first published. The magazine existed for a couple of years and was closed by order of the censors, and then the Dostoevsky brothers began publishing the magazine Znamya, but it was subsequently closed due to lack of subscribers.

From 1862 to 1863 he had a relationship with the writer Apollinaria Suslova, with whom the writer traveled to England, Germany and France. But his lady of the heart preferred another, which dealt Dostoevsky a blow. Part of the result was a pernicious passion for card games and roulette, which later brought Dostoevsky a lot of trouble and debt. Later, Fyodor Dostoevsky married Marina Dmitrievna Isaeva, with whom he lived for seven years. In 1864, he lost his wife and his beloved brother Mikhail, taking it upon himself to take care of his family. This meant writing a lot and fast.

The fantastic in creation

In the works of F.M. Dostoevsky there are often enough fantastic motifs, above all, the mystical component in the works.

Dostoevsky twice gave the subtitle “fantastic story” to his works. In The Gentleman, the fantastic device consists in the fact that the narrative is a stream of consciousness of the main character. Nowadays the fantastic nature of this technique is no longer felt, but it was on the example of The Gentleman that Dostoevsky once discussed the characteristics of his method as “realism in the highest sense,” “realism that reaches the fantastic.”

Another “fantastic story,” The Funny Man’s Dream, describes a fragile alien utopia and its destruction under the corrupting influence of an earthling who has gone there.

On the basis of a fantastic assumption – the sudden appearance of the protagonist of his complete double, who gradually takes his place in life – the story “The Double” is built. In “The Mistress” the then fashionable ideas of mesmerism and animal magnetism are used to motivate the plot.

Also fantastical in nature is the story “Bobok,” devoted to the negotiations of the dead in the cemetery. Also, a fantastic assumption underlies one of the author’s most famous humorous stories, “Crocodile” (a commoner swallowed by a crocodile feels very good about himself).

Semi-fantastical, mystical motifs are also found in Dostoevsky’s serious works, such as the novels The Brothers Karamazov (in particular, the chapters “The Grand Inquisitor,” “The Devil. Ivan Fedorovich’s Nightmare”) and The Possessed. Dostoevsky also uses science-fiction imagery, for example, describing Raskolnikov’s dream of intelligent microbes enslaving humanity, an artificial satellite of the Earth in Ivan Karamazov’s conversation with the devil. On the whole, most researchers recognize the presence of a fantastic element in Dostoevsky’s works, both as the basis of the plot and as a means of describing the places of action (“Dostoevsky’s St. Petersburg” is sometimes recognized as a kind of fantastic city, a “ghost town” which does not repeat the real historical St. Petersburg in every detail).

Dostoevsky’s “Great Five Books”

From the mid-1860s Dostoevsky began to write the books that made up his main contribution to world literature, the famous five-book Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1868), The Possessed (1872), The Teenager (1875), The Brothers Karamazov (1880).

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky wrote his main books in a great hurry, sometimes not even having time to reread dictated to stenographers, in order to meet the deadline for the magazines, where chapters of his works were published. “Very often it happened in my literary life that the beginning of a chapter of a novel or novella was already in the printer and in the set, and the ending was still sitting in my head, but must necessarily have been written by tomorrow,” – admitted Dostoevsky.

The Gambler” (1867), for example, was written in just 26 days, simultaneously with the work on Crime and Punishment.

In 1866 Fyodor Dostoevsky married his stenographer Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina. It was a happy marriage, his wife helped him in his work on manuscripts, made his work schedule, comforted him after card losses and guarded his peace from intrusive visitors. Without Anna Grigorievna Dostoevsky’s biography could have turned out quite differently: with her help the family was able to improve their financial situation and pay their debts. In the marriage were born four children.

The published novel “The Possessed” was a huge success, after its publication Dostoevsky was offered to publish in the conservative magazine Grazhdanin. Here Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich began to publish The Writer’s Diary.

Before his death, Dostoevsky was working on the second volume of the novel The Brothers Karamazov, which brought him his greatest fame. But the real sensation was his speech about Pushkin at the unveiling of the poet’s monument in Moscow in 1880. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky died on January 28, 1881.

• The Best Books By Fyodor...

The Best Books by Fyodor Dostoyevsky You Should Read

Fyodor Dostoyevsky is well and truly one of Russia ‘s most influential writers. The many hardships of his life found reflection in his work, helping him to create memorable characters that together form a detailed image of 19th-century Russia. Dostoyevsky brings forward ‘the little man’, a person you would pass on the street without giving a second thought, but in fact who represents the life of the majority of people. They are the backbone of a country, and only through understanding the life of a voiceless human can the psychological portrait of a country begin to be painted. Below are the best Dostoyevsky books that will acquaint you with some of his most memorable characters.

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Crime and Punishment (1866)

The best way to get acquainted with Dostoyevsky is by reading Crime and Punishment . One of the best-known books by the author, as well as a must-read for all Russian kids at school, this one is truly a classic. The story of a poor man that commits a crime in order to survive, but then deals with a greater struggle than poverty – extreme guilt. Along the way, the reader encounters some of the lowest and pitiful creatures that inhabit the streets of St Petersburg . As defined by Dostoyevsky himself, the novel is a psychological work, and the author stands next to the characters rather than controlling them.

If you ever feel that there isn’t enough kindness in the world, then it is certainly time to read The Idiot . The main character, Myshkin, is one of the most gentle and kind characters in literature, stuck in an imperfect world of judgemental and cunning people. He has just returned after undergoing treatment in a Swiss mental institution. His involvement in a scandalous love affair and the mistreatment by the people around him bring him back to where he started – a mental institution.

Poor Folk (1846)

This epistolary novel is written as an exchange of letters between two poor people in St Petersburg – the elderly Makar Devushkin and his beloved Varvara Dobroselova. Despite the slightly ironic tone, the work is an important social novel that gives voice to the disadvantaged people in society. Devushkin’s love for his distant cousin Varvara leads him to continuously search for money to help support her, hoping one day to eventually marry her. But despite his hopes, her parents disapprove of him and a richer man proposes to her, so Varvara is faced with a choice that many young women used to stand against.

Demons (1871)

Demons was one of Dostoyevsky’s later works and one of his most politicised pieces. The plot is based on the story of the murder of a student named Ivan Ivanov, which was allegedly committed by members of a revolutionary circle. The novel was a reflection of the growing radical movements among the intelligentsia and the first signs of terrorism. The work is a reflection of Dostoyevsky’s thoughts on the protesting part of society of his time and perhaps also a reflection on his participation in free-thinking circles.

The Gambler (1866)

Ironically, this novel was written for money, because of Dostoyevsky having lost money. The commission for the work came after Dostoyevsky lost a significant sum of money belonging not just to himself, but also to his friend whilst gambling. Due to the burdening debt, the writer made a contract to complete work on The Gambler in a very short period of time. The basis of the novel was the idea of describing the psychological state of gambling that engulfs a person involved in the game. Unfortunately for Dostoyevsky , his gambling losses repeating soon after, and from then on he made a promise to his wife never to play again.

The Insulted and Humiliated (1861)

The idea to start writing this novel came to Dostoyevsky when he moved to St Petersburg, after having spent time in exile. To a certain extent, the novel is autobiographical and is told from the point of view of a young writer, Vanya, who is struggling to make a living in the 1840s. On the novel’s pages, St Petersburg becomes an open book, and many accurate details of the character’s lives make the city come to life, similar to the works of other writers of the 19th century, such as Charles Dickens .

The Brothers Karamazov (1879)

The novel is Dostoyevsky’s final work – completed two months before the writer’s death. The complicated plot explores challenging questions, such as freedom, religion and ethics. As some critics suggest, it is a reflection of the different stages in the writer’s life, represented by the three brothers. The overall plot is interwoven with a story of murder, love and societal issues.

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Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time Paperback – Illustrated, Aug. 26 2012

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A magnificent one-volume abridgement of one of the greatest literary biographies of our time Joseph Frank's award-winning, five-volume Dostoevsky is widely recognized as the best biography of the writer in any language―and one of the greatest literary biographies of the past half-century. Now Frank's monumental, 2,500-page work has been skillfully abridged and condensed in this single, highly readable volume with a new preface by the author. Carefully preserving the original work's acclaimed narrative style and combination of biography, intellectual history, and literary criticism, Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time illuminates the writer's works―from his first novel Poor Folk to Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov ―by setting them in their personal, historical, and above all ideological context. More than a biography in the usual sense, this is a cultural history of nineteenth-century Russia, providing both a rich picture of the world in which Dostoevsky lived and a major reinterpretation of his life and work.

• Print length 984 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Princeton University Press
• Publication date Aug. 26 2012
• Dimensions 15.88 x 6.35 x 23.5 cm
• ISBN-10 0691155992
• ISBN-13 978-0691155999
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"Although the pace has quickened, the serene and magnificent persistence that Joseph Frank brought to his five volumes resonates fully in this distilled story. If (as Frank tells us) Dostoevsky 'felt ideas, ' then Frank 'feels biography' at any scale, with a perfect sense of proportion." --Caryl Emerson, Princeton University, author of The Cambridge Introduction to Russian Literature

"[This book] ensures Frank's status as the definitive literary biographer of one of the best fiction writers ever." --David Foster Wallace

"The editing and deep thought that have gone into this magnificent one-volume condensation of Frank's magnum opus are to be greatly admired. This is the best biography of Dostoevsky, the best reading of some of the major novels, the best cultural history of nineteenth-century Russia. Just the best." --Robin Feuer Miller, Brandeis University, author of Dostoevsky's Unfinished Journey

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press; Revised edition (Aug. 26 2012)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 984 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0691155992
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691155999
• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 kg
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.88 x 6.35 x 23.5 cm
• #48 in History & Criticism of Russian & Soviet Literature
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This book is best for fans of presidential history looking for untold stories. Amrita Chakrabarti Myers ’ The Vice President’s Black Wife is available from University of North Carolina Press .

19. Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff (2011)

Cleopatra may be the most famous woman in history, but her notoriety has overshadowed her incredible life and accomplishments. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stacy Schiff adds depth to her story through a thoroughly researched history that also dispels misogynistic myths about the queen of Egypt.

This book is best for anyone curious about Egyptian history or who loves the classics . Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra is available from Little, Brown & Co .

Stacy Schiff wrote an outstanding biography of Egyptian queen Cleopatra.

18. All That She Carried by Tiya Miles (2021)

This National Book Award winner and New York Times bestseller chronicles a bag passed down from an enslaved woman to future generations, which becomes the starting point for this poignant and well-researched book about the generational impact of slavery.

This book is best for everyone and should be required reading to humanize topics too often glossed over in political debates. Tiya Miles ’ All That She Carried is available from Simon & Schuster .

17. Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S. C. Gwynne (2011)

Quanah Parker, the biracial son of a pioneer woman who became the last Comanche chief, battled white settlers over land in the American West for decades. The book traces both his personal story (he was undefeated in battle) and the greater implications of the stealing of tribal lands.

This book is best for those looking for new stories about the Old West. S.C. Gwynne ’s Empire of the Summer Moon is available from Simon & Schuster .

16. Becoming Nicole: The inspiring story of transgender actor-activist Nicole Maines and her extraordinary family by Amy Ellis Nutt (2016)

Nicole Maines rose to fame when she became the first transgender woman to play a superhero on TV. Chronicling her journey from adoption to getting the job on Supergirl , this Amazon Editors Pick and New York Times bestseller also shows how her family changed their views on gender identity and the impact on their community.

This book is best for fans of comic books. Amy Ellis Nutt ’s Becoming Nicole is available from Penguin Random House .

Actress Nicole Maines speaks at a "Supergirl" presentation at Comic-Con International. She's the ... [+] subject of a heralded biography.

15. Victoria: The Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire by Julia Baird (2016)

The Victoria depicted in history books is way too dry. An Esquire and New York Times pick for best book of 2016, Victoria illuminates how the future monarch went from fifth in line for the crown to a teenage queen to a mother of nine who somehow survived eight attempts on her life.

This book is best for anyone who’s ever struggled with work-life balance. Julia Baird’s Victoria is available from Penguin Random House .

14. The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs (2021)

This remarkable book draws a line between the mothers of three of the most important Black men in American history, celebrating Black motherhood and shining a light on how they resisted Jim Crow while bringing up their sons. It was named one of Amazon's Best Biographies and Memoirs of 2021.

This book is best for parents and anyone interested in civil rights. Anna Malaika Tubbs ’ The Three Mothers is available from Macmillan .

13. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (2004)

Lin-Manuel Miranda was so inspired by this Founding Father biography that he famously wrote some of the music for Hamilton on his honeymoon. Pulitzer Prize winner Ron Chernow follows Alexandar Hamilton from immigration to member of George Washington’s cabinet to death in a duel with his nemesis, Aaron Burr.

This book is best for fans of the Broadway show and presidential history. Ron Chernow ’s Alexander Hamilton is available from Penguin Random House .

"Hamilton" author Ron Chernow and the cast appear onstage at the opening night curtain call for ... [+] "Hamilton" at the Pantages Theatre on August 16, 2017 in Los Angeles.

12. The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography by Miriam Pawel (2014)

Pulitzer Prize winner Miriam Pawel tells the story of one of the most influential and revered U.S. labor leaders in this National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. She doesn't cover up his flaws, but she does illustrate why he was so successful while saluting his enduring humanity.

This book is best for those looking for deep dives on labor or Latine history. Miriam Pawel ’s The Crusades of Cesar Chavez is available from Macmillan .

11. Warhol by Blake Gopnik (2020)

Andy Warhol is so famous, you only need to mention his last name for instant recognition. Art critic Blake Gopnik blends understanding of Warhol’s medium with excellent research and conclusions to paint the most complete picture yet of one of the defining artists of the 20 th century.

This book is best for pop culture devotees and fans of art history. Blake Gopnik ’s Warhol is available from HarperCollins .

10. Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World by Bradley Hope and Tom Wright (2018)

The Financial Times and Fortune tabbed this one of the best books of 2018 for telling the unlikeliest of stories: How a Malaysian MBA used Goldman Sachs and other financial institutions to steal billions of dollars he used to pay for real estate, parties—and even the making of The Wolf of Wall Street .

This book is best for Hollywood and movie lovers. Bradley Hope and Tom Wright’s Billion Dollar Whale is available from Hachette Books .

9. The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis (2013)

There’s so much more to Rosa Parks’ story than one day on a bus in Montgomery. Jeanne Theoharis takes a comprehensive look at her six decades of activism and why she wasn’t the “accidental catalyst” the history books have made her sound like, regaining Parks her agency.

This book is best for those who know how the Montgomery Bus Boycott began but don’t know about Parks’ earlier involvement in organizing. Jeanne Theoharis’ The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks is available from Penguin Random House .

8. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin (2005)

The inspiration behind Christopher Nolan ’s summer’s blockbuster film Oppenheimer won the Pulitzer Prize and hit No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. It tells J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life story, with a particular focus on the bomb and how it played into the Cold War.

This book is best for anyone who saw the movie and wants to know more. Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s American Prometheus is available from Penguin Random House .

"Oppenheimer" cast members Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh. The movie is ... [+] based on the prize-winning biography.

7. Self Made: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker by A'Lelia Bundles (2002)

Madam C.J. Walker, her enslaved parents’ first freeborn child, became one of the wealthiest women of her time. Entirely self-made, she used wealth gained from her cosmetics empire caring for Black hair to help uplift other women and connect with civil rights leaders. The author is Walker’s great-great granddaughter.

This book is best for people obsessed with the Forbes billionaire lists. A’Lelia Bundles ’ Self Made (originally titled On Her Own Ground) is available from Simon & Schuster .

6. Three Ordinary Girls: The Remarkable Story of Three Dutch Teenagers Who Became Spies, Saboteurs, Nazi Assassins—and WWII Heroes by Tim Brady (2021)

World War II is a hugely popular literary period, and here’s another worthy biography from that era, following the Nazi resistance efforts of Dutch teens Hannie Schaft and sisters Truus and Freddie Oversteegen. They saved countless children and Jews from concentration camps and even assassinated German soldiers.

This book is best for World War II aficionados and fans of hidden history. Tim Brady’s Three Ordinary Girls is available from Kensington Books .

5. Bruce Lee: A Life by Matthew Polly (2018)

This highly rated (4.8/5 stars on Amazon) book incorporates information gleaned from more than 100 interviews, which helped Polly piece together scenes from Lee’s childhood in Hong Kong and the challenges he faced from racism in Hollywood. It also investigates his shocking and still mysterious death.

This book is best for fans of martial arts or who want to know what it was like to be Asian in Hollywood decades ago. Matthew Polly ’s Bruce Lee is available from Simon & Schuster .

Bruce Lee from the 1972 film "The Way of the Dragon." He is the subject of Matthew Polly's ... [+] biography.

4. Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit (2021)

This finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award explores author George Orwell’s career from a unique angle: looking at his passion for gardening. Rebecca Solnit ties his devotion to his plants to his work as a writer and an antifascist. It presents him in a different light than past biographies.

This book is best for gardeners and those who’ve read 1984 . Rebecca Solnit ’s Orwell’s Roses is available from Penguin Random House .

3. Billie Holiday: The Musician and the Myth by John Szwed (2015)

Billie Holiday’s story is too often simplified to a rags-to-riches tale focusing on her struggles pre- and post-fame. But her influence, accomplishments and enduring power are far too grand to tokenize. This biography focuses on her music, allowing jazz scholar John Szwed to illustrate what made her so spectacular.

This book is best for jazz and music fans. John Szwed ’s Billie Holiday is available from Penguin Random House .

2. Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe (2023)

The Sacklers were once revered for their philanthropy, but the opioid epidemic unmasked how they sold and marketed a painkiller that catalyzed the crisis. This New York Times bestseller traces three generations of the family and their insistence on downplaying the addictiveness of opioids. It asks and answers how they avoided accountability.

This book is best for fans of Hulu’s Dopesick and anyone looking for more information about the opioid crisis. Patrick Radden Keefe ’s Empire of Pain is available from Penguin Random House .

Tufts employee Gabe Ryan removes letters from signage featuring the Sackler family name at the Tufts ... [+] building. The biography "Empire of Pain" details what led to the Sacklers' fall from grace.

1. King: A Life by Jonathan Eig (2023)

Hailed by the New Yorker , Washington Post , Time and Chicago Tribune as one of the best books of 2023, King is a definitive biography of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. It’s also the first to rely on recently declassified FBI files, giving greater depth to the narrative and this unique American story.

This book is best for those who want to go beyond the “I Have a Dream” speech. Jonathan Eig ’s King is available from Macmillan .

What Are The Most Entertaining Biographies?

The most entertaining biographies will teach lessons and impart wisdom while also keeping you on the edge of your seat, anticipating the next development in a storied life. Famed pop culture figures and entertainers make great subjects. 

For an in-depth and fast-paced look at one of our most celebrated jurists, check out 2018’s  Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life by Jane Sherron de Hart. If you want laughs and a behind-the-scenes peek at a seminal variety show, try David Bianculli’s 2010 book The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour . And to lose yourself in a dishy, reads-like-a-novel bio of the ultimate girlboss, try Marisa Meltzer’s 2023 Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss's Glossier .

What Are The Best Professional Biographies?

The best professional biographies make connections between the habits and hopes of dreamers and their eventual success. They often provide a blueprint for success that readers can adopt for their own lives. 

To learn how to build a truly impressive empire, read Neal Gabler’s 2006  Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination . Another American legend is the subject of T.J. Stiles’ 2010 National Book Award winner The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt , which is as much about capitalism as Vanderbilt. And in 2016’s Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race , Margot Lee Shetterly shows how Black women professionals were discriminated against at NASA—but still helped land a man on the moon. 

What Are The Best Presidential Biographies?

The best presidential biographies reveal never-before-known details about famous leaders’ lives. It can be challenging to dig up something new but so rewarding because it helps our understanding of how these men governed and led. 

Arguably the best presidential biography is Robert Caro’s portrait of Lyndon B. Johnson, starting with 1990’s  The Path to Power , which traces LBJ’s journey from early childhood to the start of his political career. An enduring book is Edmund Morris’ acclaimed 1979 The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt , which paints a full picture of a complicated man. And 2017’s  The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur by Scott S. Greenberger shows that even a long-forgotten president still has influence and value. 

Bottom Line

Biographies offer an escape into someone else’s story, giving you the chance to see why they made their decisions and second-guess them if you like. Whether you prefer biographies focused on history, pop culture or science, you can find a book you’ll love on this list.

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The Best New Biographies and Memoirs to Read in 2024

This year sees some riveting and remarkable lives—from artist ai weiwei to singer-songwriter joni mitchell—captured on the page..

A life story can be read for escapist pleasure. But at other times, reading a memoir or biography can be an expansive exercise, opening us up to broader truths about our world. Often, it’s an edifying experience that reminds us of our universal human vulnerability and the common quest for purpose in life.

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Biographies and memoirs charting remarkable lives—whether because of fame, fortune or simply fascination—have the power to inspire us for their depth, curiosity or challenges. This year sees a bumper calendar of personal histories enter bookshops, grappling with enigmatic public figures like singer Joni Mitchell and writer Ian Fleming , to nuanced analysis of how motherhood or sociopathy shape our lives—for better and for worse.

Here we compile some of the most rewarding biographies and memoirs out in 2024. There are stories of trauma and recovery, art as politics and politics as art, and sentences as single life lessons spread across books that will make you rethink much about personal life stories. After all, understanding the triumphs and trials of others can help us see how we can change our own lives to create something different or even better.

Zodiac: A Graphic Memoir by Ai Weiwei and illustrated by Gianluca Costantini

Ai Weiwei , the iconoclastic artist and fierce critic of his homeland China, mixes fairy tales with moral lessons to evocatively retrace the story of his life in graphic form. Illustrations are by Italian artist Gianluca Costantini . “Any artist who isn’t an activist is a dead artist,” Weiwei writes in Zodiac , as he embraces everything from animals found in the Chinese zodiac to mystical folklore tales with anamorphic animals to argue the necessity of art as politics incarnate. The meditative exercise uses pithy anecdotes alongside striking visuals to sketch out a remarkable life story marked by struggle. It’s one weaving political manifesto, philosophy and personal memoir to engage readers on the necessity of art and agitation against authority in a world where we sometimes must resist and fight back.

Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti

Already well-known for her experimental writings, Sheila Heti takes a decade of diary entries and maps sentences against the alphabet, from A to Z. The project is a subversive rethink of our relationship to introspection—which often asks for order and clarity, like in diary writing—that maps new patterns and themes in its disjointed form. Heti plays with both her confessionals and her sometimes formulaic writing style (like knowingly using “Of course” in entries) to retrace the changes made (and unmade) across ten years of her life. Alphabetical Diaries is a sometimes demanding book given the incoherence of its entries, but remains an illuminating project in thinking about efforts at self-documentation.

Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story by Leslie Jamison

Unlike her previous work The Empathy Exams , which examined how we relate to one another and on human suffering, writer Leslie Jamison wrestles today with her own failed marriage and the grief of surviving single parenting. After the birth of her daughter, Jamison divorces her partner “C,” traverses the trials and tribulations of rebound relationships (including with “an ex-philosopher”) and confronts unresolved emotional pains born of her own life living under the divorce of her parents. In her intimate retelling—paired with her superb prose—Jamison charts a personal history that acknowledges the unending divide mothers (and others) face dividing themselves between partners, children and their own lives.

Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring by Brad Gooch

Whether dancing figures or a “radiant baby,” the recognizable cartoonish symbols in Keith Haring ’s art endure today as shorthand signs representing both his playfulness and politicking. Haring (1958-1990) is the subject of writer Brad Gooch ’s deft biography, Radiant , a book that mines new material from the archive along with interviews with contemporaries to reappraise the influential quasi-celebrity artist. From rough beginnings tagging graffiti on New York City walls to cavorting with Andy Warhol and Madonna on art pieces, Haring battled everything from claims of selling out to over-simplicity. But he persisted with work that leveraged catchy quotes and colorful imagery to advance unsavory political messages—from AIDS to crack cocaine. A life tragically cut short at 31 is one powerfully celebrated in this new noble portrait.

The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul Charles

In The House of Hidden Meaning , celebrated drag queen, RuPaul , reckons with a murky inner world that has shaped—and hindered—a lifetime of gender-bending theatricality. The figurative house at the center of the story is his “ego,” a plaguing barrier that apparently long inhibited the performer from realizing dreams of greatness. Now as the world’s most recognizable drag queen—having popularized the art form for mainstream audiences with the TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race —RuPaul reflects on the power that drag and self-love have long offered across his difficult, and sometimes tortured, life. Readers expecting dishy stories may be disappointed, but the psychological self-assessment in the pages of this memoir is far more edifying than Hollywood gossip could ever be.

Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne

Patric Gagne is an unlikely subject for a memoir on sociopaths. Especially since she is a former therapist with a doctorate in clinical psychology. Still, Gagne makes the case that after a troubled childhood of antisocial behavior (like stealing trinkets and cursing teachers) and a difficult adulthood (now stealing credit cards and fighting authority figures), she receives a diagnosis of sociopathy. Her memoir recounts many episodes of bad behavior—deeds often marked by a lack of empathy, guilt or even common decency—where her great antipathy mars any ability for her to connect with others. Sociopath is a rewarding personal exposé that demystifies one vilified psychological condition so often seen as entirely untreatable or irreparable. Only now there’s a familiar face and a real story linked to the prognosis.

Ian Fleming: The Complete Man by Nicholas Shakespeare

Nicholas Shakespeare is an acclaimed novelist and an astute biographer, delivering tales that wield a discerning eye to subjects and embrace a robust attention to detail. Ian Fleming (1908-1964), the legendary creator of James Bond, is the latest to receive Shakespeare’s treatment. With access to new family materials from the Fleming estate, the seemingly contradictory Fleming is seen anew as a totally “different person” from his popular image. Taking cues from Fleming’s life story—from a refined upbringing spent in expensive private schools to working for Reuters as a journalist in the Soviet Union—Shakespeare reveals how these experiences shaped the elusive world of espionage and intrigue created in Fleming’s novels. Other insights include how Bond was likely informed by Fleming’s cavalier father, a major who fought in WWI. A martini (shaken, not stirred) is best enjoyed with this bio.

Knife: Meditations after an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie , while giving a rare public lecture in New York in August 2022, was violently stabbed by an assailant brandishing a knife . The attack saw Rushdie lose his left hand and his sight in one eye. Speaking to The New Yorker a year later , he confirmed a memoir was in the works that would confront this harrowing existential experience: “When somebody sticks a knife into you, that’s a first-person story. That’s an ‘I’ story.” Knife: Meditations after an Attempted Murder is promised to be his raw, revelatory and deeply psychological confrontation with the violent incident. Like the sword of Damocles, brutality has long stalked Rushdie ever since the 1989 fatwa issued against the author, following the publication of his controversial novel, The Satanic Verses . The answer to such barbarity, Rushdie is poised to argue, is by finding the strength to stand up again.

The Art of Dying: Writings, 2019–2022 by Peter Schjeldahl (Release: May 14)

Peter Schjeldahl (1942-2022), longstanding art critic of The New Yorker , confronted his mortality when he was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer in 2019. The resulting essay collection he then penned, The Art of Dying , is a masterful meditation on one life preoccupied entirely with aesthetics and criticism. It’s a discursive tactic for a memoir that avoids discussing Schjeldahl’s coming demise while equally confirming its impending visit by avoiding it. Acknowledging that he finds himself “thinking about death less than I used to,” Schjeldahl spends most of the pages revisiting familiar art subjects—from Edward Hopper ’s output to Peter Saul ’s Pop Art—as vehicles to re-examine his own remarkable life. With a life that began in the humble Midwest, Schjeldahl says his birthplace was one that ultimately availed him to write so plainly and cogently on art throughout his career. Such posthumous musings prove illuminating lessons on the potency of American art, with whispered asides on the tragedy of death that will come for all of us.

Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell by Ann Powers (Release: June 11)

Joni Mitchell has enjoyed a remarkable revival recently, even already being one of the most acclaimed and enduring singer/songwriters. After retiring from public appearances for health reasons in the 2010s, Mitchell, 80, has returned to the spotlight with a 2021 Kennedy Centers honor , an appearance accepting the 2023 Gershwin Prize and even a live performance at this year’s Grammy Awards . It’s against this backdrop of public celebration of Mitchell that NPR music critic Ann Powers retraces the life story and musical (re)evolution of the singer, from folk to jazz genres and rock to soul music, across five decades for the American songbook. “What you are about to read is not a standard account of the life and work of Joni Mitchell,” she writes in the introduction. Instead, Powers’ project is one showing how Mitchell’s many journeys—from literal road trips inspiring tracks like “All I Want” to inner probings of Mitchell’s psyche, such as the song “Both Sides Now”—have always inspired Mitchell’s enduring, emotive and palpable output. These travels hold the key, Powers says, to understanding an enigmatic artist.

• SEE ALSO : ‘Under the Bridge’ Review: A Miniseries That Interrogates the True Crime Genre

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