Dostoevsky: The Years of Ordeal, 1850-1859

Why he wrote about murderers for the rest of his life. A faith in humanity lost and found among examples of them. Would he have been a great writer without Siberia? It's hard to say yes. He came out stronger in every way. Shorn of an old idealism, because that was ignorant, and now he has knowledge, and no less belief. He himself says he is unchanged in principles. The need of the psyche for freedom - ahead of survival instincts or what they call self-interest - he witnesses. Epilepsy strikes, and love that's as disastrous. ( )

Continuation of the massive literary biography that I’m slowly reading. Again, probably only for Dostoevsky obsessives like me, but it’s full of interesting stuff about his life and the literary/cultural background against which it is set. This one covers the years after his arrest for political conspiracy, spent mostly in Siberia and in the army. ( )