"Today everyone asserts his own personality and strives to live a full life as an individual. But these efforts lead not to a full life but to suicide, because, instead of realizing his personality, man only slips into total isolation. For in our age mankind has been broken up into self-contained individuals, each of whom retreats into his lair...Everywhere men today are turning scornfully away from the truth that the security of the individual cannot be achieved by his isolated efforts but only by mankind as a whole.
"But an end to this fearful isolation is bound to come and all men will understand how unnatural it was for them to have isolated themselves from one another. This will be the spirit of the new era and people will look back in amazement at the past, when they sat in darkness and refused to see the light...But until that day we must keep hope alive, and now and then a man must set an example, if only an isolated one, by trying to lift his soul out of its isolation and offering it up in an act of brotherly communion, even if he is taken for one of God's fools. This is necessary, to keep the great idea alive."
This page will be devoted to the man I consider the greatest writer of the nineteenth century. Fyodor Dostoevsky led an incredible life. Through enormous personal tragedy and suffering, he endured and lived to write two of the most brilliant novels ever conceived, Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.
Dostoevsky saw deeply into the most fundamental issues of the human spirit. He captured his understandings in brilliant prose that peirces the heart and mind unlike anyone else of his time. His contributions to Western literature are eternal and he will be read, discussed and studied for centuries to come.
More later.
Christaan Stange's Dostoevsky Rescource Center:
Highly comprehensive. Perhaps THE definitive reference site for the study of Dostoevsky and his considerable body of work. Online since January 1996, Stange not only offers 200 relevant links but has the distinction of being the very first site devoted to the author on the Web.
Katharena Eiermann's Dostoevsky Site:
Offers a look at the author's life and writings from the perspective of Existentialism. Nicely done.
The World of Dostoevsky:
A detailed review of the author's life and work in both Russian and English. Features a multitude of photos and renderings of Dostoevsky.
Dostoevsky's Work On-Line:
Read much of the author's work on-line. Have plenty of paper on hand if you plan to print any of it out!
