Character Catalog

Dostoevsky's first epistolary novel, hailed upon publication as a major work by the critic Belinsky. It inaugurates the central theme of his oeuvre: the dignity of the humiliated and oppressed in an indifferent society.

An autobiographical account of his years in a Siberian labor camp, presented as a fictional testimony. A human document of rare intensity, it reveals the soul of the Russian people through the lives of convicts, and influenced both Tolstoy and Chekhov.

A major psychological novel tracing the murder committed by the student Raskolnikov and his path toward redemption. The first great psychological crime novel in world literature, it explores guilt, conscience, and faith.

A novel in which Dostoevsky attempted to portray an absolutely good man — Prince Myshkin — confronted with the violence and corruption of the world. An exploration of epilepsy, beauty, and the impossibility of sainthood on earth.

A visionary political novel inspired by a real revolutionary murder organized by Sergei Nechaev. Dostoevsky describes with prophetic precision the totalitarian excesses of revolutionary nihilism.

A coming-of-age novel recounting the identity quest of a young illegitimate man searching for his place in Russian society. Less celebrated than his other masterworks, it foreshadows the themes of The Brothers Karamazov.

Dostoevsky's final novel and spiritual testament, considered one of the greatest novels in world literature. It stages parricide, faith, doubt, and human freedom through three brothers of opposing characters.

Life is everywhere, life is within us, and not in the external world. There will be people around me, and to be a man among men, and to remain so always, whatever the adversities, not to lose heart or be cast down — that is the meaning of life.

The Russian people need beauty. Without beauty, they cannot live. I believe the secret of Russian life lies there.

I am working on a novel that will be my best, perhaps the most important of everything I have written. I am speaking of the Karamazovs. This novel is my answer to everything I have been reproached with.

Pushkin alone had a presentiment of the Russian people, of their universal soul. He belongs not only to Russia — he belongs to all of humanity.

The city where Dostoevsky spent most of his adult life and where most of his novels take place. The dark alleyways, decrepit buildings, and white light of Saint Petersburg's white nights form the backdrop of Crime and Punishment.

Dostoevsky was imprisoned here for four years (1850–1854) under appalling conditions, alongside common criminals. This traumatic experience inspired The House of the Dead and radically transformed his vision of humanity.

Dostoevsky lived here for several years with his wife Anna during his European exile (1867–1871). He visited the Old Masters Gallery and was captivated by Raphael's Sistine Madonna, which he saw as a symbol of a beauty that saves the world.

Dostoevsky gambled at the roulette tables here on several occasions and suffered some of his worst financial losses. It was largely in Wiesbaden that he conceived and developed the novel The Gambler.

It was in the doctors' residence of Moscow's military hospital that Dostoevsky was born and spent his childhood. This modest neighborhood, between grey courtyards and hospital gardens, instilled in him a deep sense of compassion for the humble.

Dostoevsky wrote with a goose or steel quill, often for hours at night, filling entire notebooks with dense handwriting. Anna would transcribe his pages neatly the following day to send to publishers.

European casino roulette was a consuming obsession for Dostoevsky for nearly ten years. He believed he had found a foolproof system for winning, yet invariably lost down to his last kopeck.

During his four years at the Omsk prison camp, the only reading permitted to Dostoevsky was a Bible given to him by Decembrist women. He read it cover to cover many times over, and it shaped his vision of Christ as the ideal of suffering humanity.

Like all Russian intellectuals of his era, Dostoevsky drank very strong black tea from metal-framed glasses called podstakanniki. He prepared it himself at the samovar during his long nights of writing.

A heavy smoker, Dostoevsky allowed himself strong tobacco cigarettes throughout his nocturnal writing sessions. This habit, combined with epilepsy and precarious living conditions, contributed to the ruin of his health.

Dostoevsky's preparatory notebooks, held in the Saint Petersburg archives, show novel plans covered in drawings, character diagrams, and scene variants. He methodically constructed his complex plots before dictating.