Series: Classics

Dostoevsky's sources for the characters and situations of the novel are set forth in an extract from Lev Reynus's Dostoevsky and Staraya Russa and in selections from Dostoevsky's letters and diary, all translated by Professor Matlaw. Konstantin Mochulsky's essay provides a general discussion of the work. Important questions as to the craft of the novel, its characterization, Dostoevsky's symbolism, the Grand Inquisitor, and the theme of religious salvation are surveyed in critical pieces by Dmitry Tschizewskij, Robert L. Belknap, Edward Wasiolek, Harry Slochower, D. H. Lawrence, Albert Camus, Nathan Rosen, Leonid Grossman, Ya. E. Golosovker, R. P. Blackmur, and Ralph E. Matlaw. Several of these selections are also recently translated from the Russian. A Selected Bibliography is included.

Crime and Punishment

by F. M. Dostoevsky

Published December 1914

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

With the same suppleness, energy, and range of voices that won their translation of The Brothers Karamazov the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize, Pevear and Volokhonsky offer a brilliant translation of Dostoevsky's classic novel that presents a clear insight into this astounding psychological thriller. "The best (translation) currently available"--Washington Post Book World.

The Idiot

by F. M. Dostoevsky

Published December 1913

Prince Myshkin, a good yet simple man, is out of place in the corrupt world created by Russia's ruling class.

The Devils

by F. M. Dostoevsky

Published 27 September 1973

"What I am writing now is a tendentious thing," Dostoyevsky wrote to a friend in connection with his first outline for The Devils. "I feel like saying everything as passionately as possible. (Let the nihilists and the Westerners scream that I am reactionary!) To hell with them. I shall say everything to the last word."

As Dostoyevsky predicted, The Devils, or The Possessed, was indeed denounced by radical critics as the work of a reactionary renegade. But radicals aside, it enjoyed great success both for its literary power and for its explicit and provocative politics; and for its story of Russian terrorists plotting violence and destruction, only to murder one of their own number.

"Stavrogin's Confession," the section omitted when the novel first appeared, is included as an appendix to this volume.