登陆注册
14885500000002

第2章

A few words about Dostoevsky himself may help the English reader to understand his work.

Dostoevsky was the son of a doctor. His parents were very hard-working and deeply religious people, but so poor that they lived with their five children in only two rooms. The father and mother spent their evenings in reading aloud to their children, generally from books of a serious character.

Though always sickly and delicate Dostoevsky came out third in the final examination of the Petersburg school of Engineering. There he had already begun his first work, “Poor Folk.”

This story was published by the poet Nekrassov in his review and was received with acclamations. The shy, unknown youth found himself instantly something of a celebrity. A brilliant and successful career seemed to open before him, but those hopes were soon dashed. In 1849 he was arrested.

Though neither by temperament nor conviction a revolutionist, Dostoevsky was one of a little group of young men who met together to read Fourier and Proudhon. He was accused of “taking part in conversations against the censorship, of reading a letter from Byelinsky to Gogol, and of knowing of the intention to set up a printing press.” Under Nicholas I. (that “stern and just man,” as Maurice Baring calls him) this was enough, and he was condemned to death. After eight months’ imprisonment he was with twenty-one others taken out to the Semyonovsky Square to be shot. Writing to his brother Mihail, Dostoevsky says: “They snapped words over our heads, and they made us put on the white shirts worn by persons condemned to death. Thereupon we were bound in threes to stakes, to suffer execution. Being the third in the row, I concluded I had only a few minutes of life before me. I thought of you and your dear ones and I contrived to kiss Plestcheiev and Dourov, who were next to me, and to bid them farewell. Suddenly the troops beat a tattoo, we were unbound, brought back upon the scaffold, and informed that his Majesty had spared us our lives.” The sentence was commuted to hard labour.

One of the prisoners, Grigoryev, went mad as soon as he was untied, and never regained his sanity.

The intense suffering of this experience left a lasting stamp on Dostoevsky’s mind. Though his religious temper led him in the end to accept every suffering with resignation and to regard it as a blessing in his own case, he constantly recurs to the subject in his writings. He describes the awful agony of the condemned man and insists on the cruelty of inflicting such torture. Then followed four years of penal servitude, spent in the company of common criminals in Siberia, where he began the “Dead House,” and some years of service in a disciplinary battalion.

He had shown signs of some obscure nervous disease before his arrest and this now developed into violent attacks of epilepsy, from which he suffered for the rest of his life. The fits occurred three or four times a year and were more frequent in periods of great strain. In 1859 he was allowed to return to Russia. He started a journal—“Vremya,” which was forbidden by the Censorship through a misunderstanding. In 1864 he lost his first wife and his brother Mihail. He was in terrible poverty, yet he took upon himself the payment of his brother’s debts. He started another journal—“The Epoch,” which within a few months was also prohibited. He was weighed down by debt, his brother’s family was dependent on him, he was forced to write at heart-breaking speed, and is said never to have corrected his work. The later years of his life were much softened by the tenderness and devotion of his second wife.

In June 1880 he made his famous speech at the unveiling of the monument to Pushkin in Moscow and he was received with extraordinary demonstrations of love and honour.

A few months later Dostoevsky died. He was followed to the grave by a vast multitude of mourners, who “gave the hapless man the funeral of a king.” He is still probably the most widely read writer in Russia.

In the words of a Russian critic, who seeks to explain the feeling inspired by Dostoevsky: “He was one of ourselves, a man of our blood and our bone, but one who has suffered and has seen so much more deeply than we have his insight impresses us as wisdom … that wisdom of the heart which we seek that we may learn from it how to live. All his other gifts came to him from nature, this he won for himself and through it he became great.”

同类推荐
  • 摄大乘论章卷第一

    摄大乘论章卷第一

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 相和歌辞·祠渔山神

    相和歌辞·祠渔山神

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • Vendetta

    Vendetta

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 广黄帝本行记

    广黄帝本行记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 佐杂谱

    佐杂谱

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 乱古至尊

    乱古至尊

    怀抱仙剑而生,本应为天生至尊,坐拥万古,却被封于神秘古棺内,沉睡万载。万年后醒来,大世将至,手执伴生仙剑,劈出属于他的一片天地。乱古纪元,我为至尊。……作者QQ:805334583感谢腾讯文学书评团提供书评支持
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 绝世盛宠:霸道总裁的倔强丫头

    绝世盛宠:霸道总裁的倔强丫头

    一场大型的婚宴,她遭受到了好友的唾弃,男友的抛弃,她冷眼的看着眼前勾搭到一起的两人,心已经麻木……可她不知道自己到底是该哭还是该笑,就在这场宴会上,霸道,冷酷,帅到人神共愤的他居然向所以人宣布:从今以后,这个女人就是我的女人,谁要是敢在背后动她一下,就得做好被我惩罚的准备,他说完,甚至不给她一丝反抗的机会,直接拉着她走出了宴会。她大怒的甩开他的手:我们很熟吗,我不需要你的怜悯。他邪魅一笑:女人,你不应该这么要强。她忍着心酸:你管不着,他俊美脸庞突然朝她靠近:你都是我的女人了,你说,我能不管吗?一场宠妻戏码,由此上演……
  • 撩妻上瘾:腹黑老公滚回房

    撩妻上瘾:腹黑老公滚回房

    结婚三年,他费劲心思花式撩妻,她却对他的绯闻熟视无睹。“要不给我生个孩子吧,不然你哪栓得住我啊!”“我拴着你干嘛?狗才用拴着呢!”“汪!”当三年形式婚姻即将终止,某男忍不住了,“我想跟你续个约,行不行?”“钱包给你,工资卡给你,我给你!”“你能干什么?”“活好,话少,要求少。”“好,这一次,换我宠你!“好的,老婆大人!”
  • 重生异界享受人生

    重生异界享受人生

    他没有傲世的武功、惊人的魔法,更不可能成仙成神,但是他确有不同种族的伙伴、亲密相依的魔宠、超凡脱俗的伴侣、幽默逗趣的家人、整人搞怪的技能,看咱们的猪角把台湾的夜市、日本的极限体能王、哈尔滨的雪橇竞赛、爱尔兰踢踏舞……等不同的游乐设施、观光景点及大型的比赛通通都搬到异界去。
  • 不可刹那无此君

    不可刹那无此君

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 误魅君心:俏皮皇后从天降

    误魅君心:俏皮皇后从天降

    (全文已完结)她,有点小聪明,会点小武功,带点小脾气。偏偏就穿了,穿就穿了吧!为毛会穿越到一个荒无人烟的树林里?不仅被当成乞丐,还险些被人一掌打死!这还不算,她竟然还是朝廷罪臣之女!如此悲催?这可不是她想要的生活。你既不想让我活,我偏要活得精彩。一场交易一场戏,丢了心,失了身,换来的是什么?绝情利用?亦或是真情真爱?
  • 女神饶情倾城之恋

    女神饶情倾城之恋

    这本书告诉你,女神是怎压根修炼而成的。这本书告诉你,女人也可以风魔万千少男。这本书告诉你,钱,放进自己腰包里最安全。这本书告诉你,当失忆的青梅竹马和男神碰在一起,会有火花的。这本书告诉你,女人,可以越来越强大的。亲们,很遗憾的说,这本书可以免费很长时间。
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 怪异传记

    怪异传记

    十二岁那年,我摔断了手,外婆请跳大神的老人帮我请下龙王,龙王赐了我姓名,还告诉我,我人生有三大劫数。第一劫在十二岁,我摔断了手。第二劫在二十岁,我不能过河和去阴暗潮湿的地方。第三劫在三十八岁,我不能过桥和去宽阔广袤四下无人的地方,例如沙漠和天台。而今年,我二十岁。坚信科学的我,去了阴暗潮湿的地方,然后······