Poor People / A Little Hero
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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Poor People (1846), Dostoevsky's first novel written when the author was twenty-four, made him famous literally overnight. Although it shows the influence of Gogol's The Overcoat, this novel is written with a sympathy and understanding that enable it to stand on its own as an original work. So great was its impact upon the critics of its time that it became responsible for the literary term, "the natural school," which was applied to an entire group of Russian novels. After writing the book, Dostoevsky became involved with a group of radicals headed by the young and rich dilettante, Mikhail Petrashevsky.
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1,469+ Works 180,249 Members
One of the most powerful and significant authors in all modern fiction, Fyodor Dostoevsky was the son of a harsh and domineering army surgeon who was murdered by his own serfs (slaves), an event that was extremely important in shaping Dostoevsky's view of social and economic issues. He studied to be an engineer and began work as a draftsman. show more However, his first novel, Poor Folk (1846), was so well received that he abandoned engineering for writing. In 1849, Dostoevsky was arrested for being a part of a revolutionary group that owned an illegal printing press. He was sentenced to be executed, but the sentence was changed at the last minute, and he was sent to a prison camp in Siberia instead. By the time he was released in 1854, he had become a devout believer in both Christianity and Russia - although not in its ruler, the Czar. During the 1860's, Dostoevsky's personal life was in constant turmoil as the result of financial problems, a gambling addiction, and the deaths of his wife and brother. His second marriage in 1887 provided him with a stable home life and personal contentment, and during the years that followed he produced his great novels: Crime and Punishment (1886), the story of Rodya Raskolnikov, who kills two old women in the belief that he is beyond the bounds of good and evil; The Idiots (1868), the story of an epileptic who tragically affects the lives of those around him; The Possessed (1872), the story of the effect of revolutionary thought on the members of one Russian community; A Raw Youth (1875), which focuses on the disintegration and decay of family relationships and life; and The Brothers Karamazov (1880), which centers on the murder of Fyodor Karamazov and the effect the murder has on each of his four sons. These works have placed Dostoevsky in the front rank of the world's great novelists. Dostoevsky was an innovator, bringing new depth and meaning to the psychological novel and combining realism and philosophical speculation in his complex studies of the human condition. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Fyodor Dostoyevsky has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.
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Anchor Books (619)
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- Canonical title
- Poor People / A Little Hero
- Original publication date
- 1968 - Anchor edition; 1846 - Poor People; 1849 - A Little Hero
- Original language
- Russian
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 72
- Popularity
- 436,321
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.89)
- Languages
- English, Russian
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 1
- ASINs
- 5
