Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time by Joseph Frank (English) Paperback Book

Description: Dostoevsky by Joseph Frank Carefully preserving the original works acclaimed narrative style and combination of biography, intellectual history, and literary criticism, this title illuminates the authors works from his first novel "Poor Folk" to "Crime and Punishment" and "The Brothers Karamazov" by setting them in their personal, historical, and ideological context. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Joseph Franks award-winning, five-volume Dostoevsky is widely recognized as the best biography of the writer in any language--and one of the greatest literary biographies of the past half-century. Now Franks monumental, 2500-page work has been skillfully abridged and condensed in this single, highly readable volume with a new preface by the author. Carefully preserving the original works acclaimed narrative style and combination of biography, intellectual history, and literary criticism, Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time illuminates the writers works--from his first novel Poor Folk to Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov--by setting them in their personal, historical, and above all ideological context. More than a biography in the usual sense, this is a cultural history of nineteenth-century Russia, providing both a rich picture of the world in which Dostoevsky lived and a major reinterpretation of his life and work. Back Cover "Although the pace has quickened, the serene and magnificent persistence that Joseph Frank brought to his five volumes resonates fully in this distilled story. If (as Frank tells us) Dostoevsky felt ideas, then Frank feels biography at any scale, with a perfect sense of proportion." --Caryl Emerson, Princeton University, author of The Cambridge Introduction to Russian Literature "[This book] ensures Franks status as the definitive literary biographer of one of the best fiction writers ever." --David Foster Wallace "The editing and deep thought that have gone into this magnificent one-volume condensation of Franks magnum opus are to be greatly admired. This is the best biography of Dostoevsky, the best reading of some of the major novels, the best cultural history of nineteenth-century Russia. Just the best." --Robin Feuer Miller, Brandeis University, author of Dostoevskys Unfinished Journey Flap "Although the pace has quickened, the serene and magnificent persistence that Joseph Frank brought to his five volumes resonates fully in this distilled story. If (as Frank tells us) Dostoevsky felt ideas, then Frank feels biography at any scale, with a perfect sense of proportion."-- Caryl Emerson, Princeton University, author of The Cambridge Introduction to Russian Literature "[This book] ensures Franks status as the definitive literary biographer of one of the best fiction writers ever."-- David Foster Wallace "The editing and deep thought that have gone into this magnificent one-volume condensation of Franks magnum opus are to be greatly admired. This is the best biography of Dostoevsky, the best reading of some of the major novels, the best cultural history of nineteenth-century Russia. Just the best."-- Robin Feuer Miller, Brandeis University, author of Dostoevskys Unfinished Journey Author Biography Joseph Frank is professor emeritus of Slavic and comparative literature at Stanford and Princeton. The five volumes of his Dostoevsky biography, published between 1976 and 2002, won a National Book Critics Circle Award, a "Los Angeles Times" book prize, two James Russell Lowell Prizes, two Christian Gauss Awards, and other honors. In 2008, the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies awarded Frank its highest honor. Table of Contents List of I llustrations xi Preface: Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time xiii Acknowledgments xix Transliteration xxi Abbreviations xxiii PART I: The Seeds of Revolt, 1821-1849 Chapter 1: Prelude 3 Chapter 2: The Family 5 Chapter 3: The Religious and Cultural Background 23 Chapter 4: The Academy of Military Engineers 38 Chapter 5: The Two Romanticisms 51 Chapter 6: The Gogol Period 61 Chapter 7: Poor Folk 76 Chapter 8: Dostoevsky and the Pleiade 86 Chapter 9: Belinsky and Dostoevsky: I?94 Chapter 10: Feuilletons and Experiments 104 Chapter 11: Belinsky and Dostoevsky: II?119 Chapter 12: The Beketov and Petrashevsky Circles 129 Chapter 13: Dostoevsky and Speshnev 145 PART II: The Y ears of Ordeal, 1850-1859 Chapter 14: The Peter-and-Paul Fortress 163 Chapter 15: Katorga 185 Chapter 16: "Monsters in Their Misery" 196 Chapter 17: Private Dostoevsky 223 Chapter 18: A Russian Heart 243 Chapter 19: The Siberian Novellas 255 Chapter 20: Homecoming 273 PART III: The Stir of Liberation, 1860-1865 Chapter 21: Into the Fray 281 Chapter 22: An Aesthetics of T ranscendence 298 Chapter 23: The Insulted and Injured 317 Chapter 24: The Era of Proclamations 330 Chapter 25: Portrait of a Nihilist 341 Chapter 26: Time: The Final Months 358 Chapter 27: Winter Notes on Summer Impressions 372 Chapter 28: An Emancipated Woman, A Tormented Lover 384 Chapter 29: The Prison of Utopia 399 Chapter 30: Notes from Underground 413 Chapter 31: The End of Epoch 441 PART IV: The Miraculous Y ears, 1865-1871 Chapter 32: Khlestakov in Wiesbaden 455 Chapter 33: From Novella to Novel 472 Chapter 34: Crime and Punishment 483 Chapter 35: "A Little Diamond" 509 Chapter 36: The Gambler 521 Chapter 37: Escape and Exile 531 Chapter 38: In Search of a Novel 549 Chapter 39: An Inconsolable Father 564 Chapter 40: The Idiot 577 Chapter 41: The Pamphlet and the Poem 590 Chapter 42: Fathers, Sons, and Stavrogin 601 Chapter 43: Exiles Return 616 Chapter 44: History and Myth in Demons 626 Chapter 45: The Book of the Impostors 650 PART V: The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871-1881 Chapter 46: The Citizen 669 Chapter 47: Narodnichestvo: Russian Populism 682 Chapter 48: Bad Ems 694 Chapter 49: A Raw Youth 706 Chapter 50: A Public Figure 723 Chapter 51: The Diary of a Writer, 1876-1877 738 Chapter 52: A New Novel 760 Chapter 53: The Great Debate 779 Chapter 54: Rebellion and the Grand Inquisitor 788 Chapter 55: Terror and Martial Law 804 Chapter 56: The Pushkin Festival 813 Chapter 57: Controversies and Conclusions 835 Chapter 58: The Brothers Karamazov: Books 1-4 848 Chapter 59: The Brothers Karamazov: Books 5-6 867 Chapter 60: The Brothers Karamazov: Books 7-12 886 Chapter 61: Death and Transfiguration 912 Editors Note 933 Index 935 Contents Review Co-Winner of the Etkind Prize, European University at St. Petersburg "A monumental achievement... This is not a literary biography in the usual sense of the term... It is, rather, an exhaustive history of Dostoyevskys mind, an encyclopedic account of the author as major novelist and thinker, essayist and editor, journalist and polemicist... Wrought with tireless love and boundless ingenuity, it ... [is] a multifaceted tribute from an erudite and penetrating cultural critic to one of the great masters of 19th-century fiction."--Michael Scammell, New York Times Book Review "It is unquestionably the fullest, most nuanced and evenhanded--not to mention the most informative--account of its subject in any language, and it has significantly changed our understanding of both the man and his work."--Donald Fanger, Los Angeles Times Book Review "In his aim of elucidating the setting within which Dostoevsky wrote--personal on the one hand, social, historical, cultural, literary, and philosophical on the other--Frank has succeeded triumphantly."--J. M. Coetzee, New York Review of Books "Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time thus immediately becomes the essential one-volume commentary on the intellectual dynamics and artistry of this great novelists impassioned, idea-driven fiction... To understand Dostoevskys often savage satire or nightmarish visions or just the conversations among the Karamazov brothers, one needs to grasp not only the text but also the ideological context. To both of these there is no better guide than Joseph Frank."--Michael Dirda, Wall Street Journal "Magnificent... A deeply absorbing account."--James Wood, New Republic "The ideal one-volume biography of Dostoevsky could only come through a distillation of the much-acclaimed five-volume biography (1976-2002) by Joseph Frank. In compressing his longer work, editor Mary Petrusewicz tightens the rigor of a narrative that already departed from traditional biography by focusing chiefly on the ideas with which the Russian author wrestled so powerfully, providing the details of his personal life only as incidental background. Thus, for example, while readers do learn of formative incidents during Dostoevskys four years in tsarist prison camp, what they see most clearly is how the prison experience deepened the authors faith in God while dampening his zeal for political reform. In a similar way, Frank limns only briefly the life experiences surrounding the writing of the major novels--Crime and Punishment, Demons, and Brothers Karamazov--devoting his scrutiny largely to how Dostoevsky develops the ideological tensions within each work. Readers consequently see, for instance, how Napoleonic illusions justify Raskolnikovs bloody crimes, how the Worship of Man dooms Kirillov to suicide, and how deep Christian faith enables Alyosha to resist Ivans corrosive rationalism. Yet while probing Dostoevskys themes, Frank also examines the artistry that gives them imaginative life, highlighting--for example--perspectival techniques that anticipate those of Woolf and Joyce. A masterful abridgement."--Bryce Christensen, Booklist (Starred Review) "Frank displays a brilliant command of Dostoyevskys heroic endeavors, and his biography reads readily, especially for such a scholarly work. It compares nicely with Leon Edels multivolume biography of Henry James. Highly recommended."--Robert Kelly, Library Journal "It is wonderfully lucidly written and a marvellous portrait of the man behind the books."--Nadine Gordimer, Independent "This extraordinary biography succeeds in making both irony and great ideas wholly alive, immediately accessible to us. It is a great work, both of scholarship and of art."--A. S. Byatt, Sunday Times (London) "A narrative of such compelling precision, thoroughness and insight as to give the reader a sense not just of acquaintanceship, but of complete identification with Dostoevsky, of looking through his eyes and understanding with his mind."--Helen Muchnic, Boston Globe "One of the finest achievements of American literary scholarship."--Rene Wellek, Washington Post Book World "Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time at last offers non-specialist readers access to the definitive biography of an important figure in the history of the novel... Patient, cautious, critical but not judgmental, using clear language and a chronologically ordered narrative structure, Frank neutralises the unreliable and hysterical self-constructions of which his subject was capable. The result is like watching an artist building an intricate, large-scale painting around a single figure... Franks great insight is that, just as no one aspect of Dostoevskys complex personality can be separated from the others, no part of his writing--whether aesthetic, moral, religious or political--can be quarantined from the others. Franks biography honours the polyphony of Dostoevskys novelistic imagination: even in truncated form, it is a rare triumph."--Geordie Williamson, Australian "Franks monumental five-volume study of Dostoevsky deserves to be read, if only as an inspiring lesson about how much more thrilling a focus on ideas can be than the standard biographys obsession with the connections between creativity and the subjects personal life. The series has been condensed with incisive care and respect, giving those with limited time (and budget) a chance to engage with a revelatory vision of the Russian writers enduring greatness."--Bill Marx, PRIs "The World" "This is the Dostoevsky we encounter in Joseph Franks superb Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time, a one-volume, 984-page condensation of Franks five-volume biography of the author, written over the course of a long and distinguished career... Few biographers could muster the intelligence and imagination needed to capture all this in a single tome. We should be grateful for Joseph Frank."--Peter Savodnik, Commentary "With the publication of Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time earlier this year, a massive abridgement of five volumes written over three decades, Frank breaks once and for all with his early critics stilted categories in portraying the human subject. His innovative method of biography, influenced heavily by literary criticism, starts with artistic expression and moves backward, seeking to carefully situate his subject within ideological context... Without a doubt, the genius of Franks form is in combining three modalities in crafting his narrative: literary criticism, social and intellectual history, and biography."--Aaron Stuvland, Politics and Culture "Joseph Franks magisterial five-volume biography of Dostoevsky--one of the exemplary achievements of our era--has invaluably been published in an abridged one-volume edition."--Jeff Simon, Buffalo News "The depth of Franks achievement is to put the writer and his work in social, political, ideological and historical context."--Jeff Baker, Oregonian "Most of us spend much of our life trying to understand only a handful of people we know and love, in a span of time usually extending just three generations (from our parents to our children). Imagine, then, devoting your life to trying to make sense of one other person long dead, whom you had necessarily never met, with whom you may have nothing in common, and whose times and works must always seem elusive, encoded and frustratingly out of your reach. In a pursuit of that kind, Leon Edel trudged through five volumes on Henry James, Robert Caro is working away on his fourth installment of Lyndon Johnsons biography, and Edmund Morris is finalizing his third book on Teddy Roosevelt. Joseph Frank, though, trumps them all. After writing Feodor Dostoevskys biography in five volumes, Frank and a gifted editor (Mary Petrusewicz) have now turned that massive, interminable endeavour into an abridged, accessible one-volume edition."--Mark Thomas, Canberra Times "Joseph Frank, emeritus professor of Slavic and comparative literature at Stanford and Princeton universities, fully grasped the pressure of the political and religious issues seething in and around the visionary author to whom he dedicated his career. It took him five highly praised volumes and 26 years (1976-2002) to give a full account of Dostoevskys life, works and times; this new, hefty condensation was done in collaboration with editor and Russian scholar Mary Petrusewicz, on condition that the original five volumes remain in print, available to anyone wishing for a wider horizon. ... Franks magisterial homage deserves no less recognition."--Judith Armstrong, The Age "Franks five-volume biography has been called magisterial and monumental, as well as nuanced, lucid and penetrating. The same might be said of this shorter version."--Marilyn McEntyre, Christian Century "Franks contribution to understanding Dostoevsky is no less than Dostoevskys own gift to the world of literature."--Sarthak Shankar, Organiser Prizes Joint winner of Etkind Prize of the European University at St. Petersburg 2011 Long Description Joseph Franks award-winning, five-volume Dostoevsky is widely recognized as the best biography of the writer in any language--and one of the greatest literary biographies of the past half-century. Now Franks monumental, 2500-page work has been skillfully abridged and condensed in this single, highly readable volume with a new preface by the author. Carefully preserving the original works acclaimed narrative style and combination of biography, intellectual history, and literary criticism, Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time illuminates the writers works--from his first novel Poor Folk to Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov--by setting them in their personal, historical, and above all ideological context. More than a biography in the usual sense, this is a cultural history of nineteenth-century Russia, providing both a rich picture of the world in which Dostoevsky lived and a major reinterpretation of his life and work. Review Quote With the publication of Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time earlier this year, a massive abridgement of five volumes written over three decades, Frank breaks once and for all with his early critics stilted categories in portraying the human subject. His innovative method of biography, influenced heavily by literary criticism, starts with artistic expression and moves backward, seeking to carefully situate his subject within ideological context. . . . Without a doubt, the genius of Franks form is in combining three modalities in crafting his narrative: literary criticism, social and intellectual history, and biography. -- Aaron Stuvland, Politics and Culture Details ISBN0691155992 Author Joseph Frank Pages 984 Year 2012 ISBN-10 0691155992 ISBN-13 9780691155999 Format Paperback Imprint Princeton University Press Subtitle A Writer in His Time Place of Publication New Jersey Country of Publication United States DEWEY 891.733 Illustrations 31 halftones. Birth 1918 Publication Date 2012-08-26 Publisher Princeton University Press Short Title DOSTOEVSKY Language English Media Book Abridged Yes Edition Revised edition Translated from English UK Release Date 2012-08-26 NZ Release Date 2012-08-26 US Release Date 2012-08-26 Edition Description Revised edition Alternative 9780691128191 Audience General AU Release Date 2012-11-04 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:137696727;

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