Dostoevsky

André Gide is now one of the leaders of French literature. The first book of his to attract wide attention among the lettered was _L’Immoraliste_. Since then, in some twenty yea...

When fifty, he wrote: “This plan of a novel (i.e. _The Brothers Karamazov_, not written till nine years later) has been tormenting me now for more than three years; but I have n...

Decidedly, submissiveness, to this degree, is disconcerting! Nothing here for nihilists, anarchists, or even socialists, to use for their own ends. What! not a cry of revolt? Pe...

Some time before the war I was preparing for Charles Péguy’s _Cahiers de la Quinzaine_, a _Life of Dostoevsky_ after the manner of Romain Rolland’s fine monographs on Beethoven...

“I spent the whole four years behind dungeon walls, and only left the prison when I was taken on ‘hard labour.’ The work was hard, though not always; sometimes in bad weather, i...

“‘As to the question of faith,’ he began, smiling, ... ‘I had four different conversations in two days last week. I came in the morning by the new railway and talked for four ho...

But, by an inversion which I make bold to describe as inspired by the New Testament, the most abject characters are nearer the Kingdom of Heaven than the noblest. To such a degr...

I am not so sure that we do not find some gulfs in Balzac, inexplicably abrupt; nor am I sure either that Dostoevsky’s are as unfathomed as at first would be imagined. Shall I g...

Almost the theme of _The Eternal Husband_! _The Idiot_ dates from 1868, _The Eternal Husband_ from 1870. Some men of letters--and as clever a critic as Marcel Schwob was amongst...

This passage from Schopenhauer will prove illuminating: “He sees that the difference between him who inflicts suffering and him who must bear it is only the phenomenon; and does...

“‘Do you want the whole truth?’ said Pyotr Stepanovitch to Stavrogin. ‘You see the idea really did cross my mind--you hinted it yourself, not seriously, but teasing me (for of c...

From knowledge of his own case, Dostoevsky supposes a pathological condition which, for a space, imposes and suggests to one or other of his characters a new formula of existenc...

“To be a good citizen is better than being in aristocratic society. I say that because in Russia, nowadays, one doesn’t know whom to respect. You’ll agree that it’s a serious ma...

“‘I took it out and looked. The money’s all there. I dropped it in again, and so I’ve been walking about since yesterday morning. I carry it in my coat and it knocks against my...