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Product Description
Product Description
One of the rare Dostoevsky novels to organize itself around a central theme rather than a central story or character, The House of the Dead explores life and death in the confines of a nineteenth century Siberian prison. Largely based on Dostoevsky’s own experiences while in exile, the novel examines prison life and the brutality of the captive population, as well as that of the prison guards and administrators. Inspiring Dostoevsky to feature murder and many of other sinister elements in his later works, The House of the Dead is an essential read for historians and Dostoevsky scholars alike.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (1821 - 1881) studied at the Military Engineering College in St Petersburg, and achieved officer's rank. Arrested in 1849 and sentenced to death for his involvement in a political coup, he was reprieved at the last moment but sentenced to penal servitude. On his return, he fell into debt as a result of gambling. His greatest works were all written in the last 20 years of his life. David McDuff is a renowned Russian translateor and has written books and articles on Russian literature.
--This text refers to an alternate
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
House of the Dead is an account of the ten years that the narrator, Alexandr Petrovitch, spent in a Siberian prison but is clearly inspired by the four years that Dostoyevsky himself passed in Katorga prison. An excellently balanced novel, it focuses on the things that were revelations to Alexandr, concentrating on his first year in incarceration rather than giving a blow by blow, chronological account. This works well because it means that the pace of the work is quite steady and we are constantly being introduced to new ideas and feelings.
The work centres on a number of key concepts:
1) The relationship between the convicts and the factions that they immediately divide themselves into.
2) The idea that those unaccustomed to hardship will, innately, find prison life more difficult and that it can be, therefore, a disproportionate punnishment.
3) The barbarising effect of power on some of those in authority.
4) The level of degredation imposed on the prisoners and whether it is just.
In all of Dostoyevsky's works, the details are brilliantly sketched but this is especially true of House of the Dead due to the author's first hand experience of the nightmare of life in Siberia. It is not my favourite of his books, due in the most part to the quality of others such as The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punnishment, but the writing simply cannot be criticised and leaves one attached to the characters involved.
The work centres on a number of key concepts:
1) The relationship between the convicts and the factions that they immediately divide themselves into.
2) The idea that those unaccustomed to hardship will, innately, find prison life more difficult and that it can be, therefore, a disproportionate punnishment.
3) The barbarising effect of power on some of those in authority.
4) The level of degredation imposed on the prisoners and whether it is just.
In all of Dostoyevsky's works, the details are brilliantly sketched but this is especially true of House of the Dead due to the author's first hand experience of the nightmare of life in Siberia. It is not my favourite of his books, due in the most part to the quality of others such as The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punnishment, but the writing simply cannot be criticised and leaves one attached to the characters involved.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
At the beginning of 1850, Dostoyevsky began a four year penal servitude term in a remote Siberian prison for his part in a political conspiracy. He describes the conditions and his fellow convicts in meticulous detail under the guise of narrator , Alexandr Petrovich Goryanchikov . The detached and controlled tone in which he does this offers an insight into the core of the criminal mind slowly turning the crisis of his internment into a re-discovery of his own personality.
Not for the faint-hearted, these pages depict the struggle of one man to understand his fellow convicts, and impart an accurate image of the claustrophobic, relentlessly lonely
coffin which was a ten year stretch in a freezing, filthy hell.
Not quite as striking as Crime & Punishment or melodramatic as The Idiot, but infinitely rewarding, nonetheless.
Not for the faint-hearted, these pages depict the struggle of one man to understand his fellow convicts, and impart an accurate image of the claustrophobic, relentlessly lonely
coffin which was a ten year stretch in a freezing, filthy hell.
Not quite as striking as Crime & Punishment or melodramatic as The Idiot, but infinitely rewarding, nonetheless.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The House of the Dead is not so much a novel, rather more a documentary account of the years Dostoyevsky spent in a prison camp as sentence for his involvement in a political conspiracy. The narrator, Aleksandr Petrovich, is little more than a front for the author; a few seeming inconsistencies in his story make the book seem even more like autobiography. But this is a direct and and interesting study of the brutal prison regime, of the narrator's slow recovery from despair at his predicament, and of the characters of his fellow convicts, some of whom he eventually concludes, "were quite remarkable". This is the first book by Dostoyevsky I've read and has left me looking forward to more.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Psychological realism
I wasn't too crazy about this book the first time I read it, probably because it's not as much of a "novel" as his other books, being based on his own life experience, but I... Read more
Published 2 days ago by Blackbeard
Russia from the 'Inside'
________________________________________
I picked up Dostoyevsky's The House of the Dead in a charity shop in Epsom, where I had half an hour to idle away before the next bus. Read more
I picked up Dostoyevsky's The House of the Dead in a charity shop in Epsom, where I had half an hour to idle away before the next bus. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. D. James
Russian realism
The House of Dead is a largely autobiographical novel based on Dostoyevsky's years in a Siberian prison labour camp. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Juliet Foster
memoirs from a gulag
In the Winter of 1850, Dostoyevsky started a four year prison sentence in Siberia for his involvement in a movement considered to be unsympathetic towards the government. Read more
Published 14 months ago by paulholzherr
Excellent Account of a Siberian Prison
This is an excellent account drawn from Dostoyevsky's own experiences of his time spent in a Siberian prison. Read more
Published on 15 Jun 2009 by I. M. Knight
Readable prison tale
Very fine and entertaining account of Russian prison life.You certainly get a good feel of the regime he experienced firsthand and the deplorable conditions of the incarcerated... Read more
Published on 13 Jun 2009 by nicholas hargreaves
Tsarist version of Solzhenitsyn's"One day in the life..."
Before I read this, I had read Solzhenitsyn's "One day in the life of Ivan Denisovic" and in it's blurb it mentioned this book to be likened to it. Read more
Published on 23 Nov 2001
TRANSCENDING THE BARS
Fydor Dostoyevsky when a 27 year old author working on Netochka Nezvanova was arrested for belonging to a young socialist group. Read more
Published on 22 Sep 2000
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