Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Crime and Punishment is one of the greatest and most readable novels ever written. From the beginning we are locked into the frenzied consciousness of Raskolnikov who, against his better instincts, is inexorably drawn to commit a brutal double murder. From that moment on, we share his conflicting feelings of self-loathing and pride, of contempt for and need of others, and of terrible despair and hope of redemption: and, in a remarkable transformation...

A collection of short fiction from one of nineteenth-century Russia’s greatest novelists, the author of Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.
 
These short stories offer a dazzling glimpse of life in the Russian Empire and penetrating portraits of unforgettable characters. In the titular story, a lonely man has a chance meeting with a sad young woman. Learning that she is in love with another,...

After fifteen years of treatment for epilepsy in a Swiss institution, Prince Mishkin returns to St. Petersburg to find a jaded mid-19th century social world. At first, the kindly, almost childlike prince is taken for an idiot. But the two most beautiful women in town are soon competing for his affections in a duel that grows increasingly dangerous.

"In this short novel, Fyodor Dostoevsky tells the story of Alexey Ivanovitch, a young tutor working in the household of an imperious Russian general. Alexey tries to break through the wall of the established order in Russia, but instead becomes mired in the endless downward spiral of betting and loss. His intense and inescapable addiction is accentuated by his affair with the General's cruel yet seductive niece, Polina. In The Gambler, Dostoevsky...

"Notes from the Underground (1864) is one of the most profound works of nineteenth-century literature. A probing, speculative book, often regarded as a forerunner of the Existentialist movement, it examines the important political and philosophical questions that were current in Russia and Europe at the time." -- Provided by publisher. "The Gambler (1866), set in the fictional town of Roulettenberg, explores the compulsive nature of gambling, one...

Fictionalized memoir of a man serving as ten-year prison sentence for murdering his wife. Written in 1861, following Dostoevsky's own four-year prison internment, depicts the prison coffin with considerable immediacy.

The violent and vengeful lives of three sons are exposed when their despicable father is murdered, and each man struggles to come to terms with the guilt over his involvement in the crime.