advanced composition blog: 1. Fyodor Dostoevsky

(Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcXrLGGDYCTcEMvvkonUYKUUpzBGB_c1340vA7HsyibBPX64NIfv-lQR8VIX1o1lk6xEKYjksBqowlH90ztsejyJM-7CF6omIiYjmhuYYXB517k3U-4XjbDtG7449WT3d5WWJt7q75q2WB/s1600/dostoevsky1.jpg)

Bam. Dostoevsky always makes me urge to continue reading like no one else. I like Tolstoy, too. The Russian writers are just so different and deep and dark and intense and intricate and difficult.

Born in Moscow in 1821, Dostoevsky is considered by many as the greatest novelist of all time. He’s a master of exploring psychology in his works. He writes in the context of social and spiritual unrest, and he weaves characters, plots, and settings into incredibly insightful and thought-provoking literature. He forces you to think about and question yourself, the nature of our existence, and the human condition. Isolation, redemption, struggle, guilt, ethic, and suffering are dominant themes in his works. He’s a brilliant storyteller who packs so much into such… long stories. I like that he often pits two opposing ideas against each other and works out their battles through his stories. You hang on every word. Realism isn’t a favorite genre of mine, but Dostoevsky is an exception.

I like my literature philosophical, and the Mad Russian fits the bill perfectly. His works are epic in every sense of the word.

Favorite Excerpt:

"At some thoughts one stands perplexed, especially at the sight of men's sin, and wonders whether one should use force or humble love. Always decide to use humble love. If you resolve on that once for all, you may subdue the whole world. Loving humility is marvelously strong, the strongest of all things and there is nothing else like it. Every day and every hour, every minute, walk round yourself and watch yourself, and see that your image is a seemly one...Brothers, love is a teacher; but one must know how to acquire it, for it is hard to acquire, it is dearly bought, it is won slowly by long labor. For we must love not only occasionally, for a moment, but forever."

- from The Brothers Karamazov

Famous Works:

Notes from Unerground (1864)