3 best books by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

No one would say that Dostoyevsky surrendered to the arms of literature thanks to the romantic authors. If something can be highlighted in the great Dostoyevsky It is the rawness within a captivating sense of humanity of each and every one of its characters.

But it certainly was. The romantic movement, which, although he was already caught in the retreat phase, was still a fundamental influence of the readings that served as the first food for Fyodor.

What must have happened is that this author discovered that reality is stubborn. The convulsive circumstances and the social deterioration of the Russian people ended up bringing another type of muses much more realistic and determined to deepen to the last requirement of the soul.

Of exquisite narrative aesthetics, despite this, its general argumentation absorbed that feeling of generalized boredom, little externalized of a people governed, above all, by fear and a kind assumption of fatality as the only destiny of the people devoted to the cause of Tsarism. .

In addition to that intention of reflecting the social interiorities of his country and that search for the deepest soul of his characters, Dostoyevski could not avoid his own life experience as a literary motive. Because his political position, once evident, and when his literary dedication could be considered dangerous, ended up leading him to a sentence of forced labor in Siberia.

Luckily he escaped the death penalty for conspiracy and, after serving the Russian army as the second part of his sentence, he was able to write again.

3 Recommended Novels by Dostoyevsky

The idiot

Without a doubt, we are facing one of the greatest character novels. Everything that happens in this novel happens through the perspectives of those absolute protagonists of world literature. A guiding thread that is difficult to explain in a traditional narrative structure and yet a harmonious whole that ends up composing an immeasurable map of human thought, emotions and reasoning that end up moving us all.

The individual exposed to conflict, loss, despair, ends up withdrawing into himself, discovering his hells and the ultimate realities of existence. If Dostoyevsky had been a psychiatrist, he could probably have determined the illness in the patient's gaze, in his gestures, in his rictus. The descriptions of the characters in this novel are frankly unattainable by any other pen.

Summary: Written during the years when Fyodor M. Dostoyevski (1821-1881) roamed Europe harassed by his creditors, sick and needy, "The Idiot" (1868) is undoubtedly one of the heights of literature.

The novel, whose development revolves around the idea of ​​representing an archetype of moral perfection, has Prince Myshkin as its protagonist – a character comparable in stature to Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment or Stavrogin in “The Demons” – whose Personality, significantly, gives the work its title. Incarnation of all the virtues associated with the Christian spirit, Myshkin, however, paradoxically, does nothing more than disrupt, along with his own life, that of the majority of those who come to him.

Dostoevsky's The Idiot

Crime and Punishment

I know you may disagree about the second place awarded to this work. But I certainly liked The Idiot a lot more, due to what was previously mentioned. It is clear that this novel, authored by any other writer, would be in its first position because this novel becomes the most illustrious metaphysical argument in world literature.

Summary: This novel, one of the greatest and most enduring in world literature, contains two of Dostoyevsky's characteristic themes: the relationship between guilt and punishment and the idea of ​​the redemptive force of human suffering, vigorously raising the conflict between Good and Evil, that ethical dualism that is a constant in the author's work.

Under the naturalistic framework of a thesis novel, lies a metaphysical and moral allegory. Dostoevsky observes that punishment does not intimidate the criminal, "because he already morally demands punishment."

Crime and Punishment

The Karamazov brothers

Human relationships are flawed. It can be thought that man is really a wolf for man or, on the contrary, it can be interpreted that the formation and education around fixed social structures and consolidated over time around a good that allows the occasional movement towards evil suffer from of those final vices that the human being ends up adopting as something natural. A novel about social interactions. The mirror of Russian reality as a reflection where we can well recognize any other society.

Summary: In The Karamázov brothers, the last work and monumental synthesis of his thought and art, he develops his intimate conviction of the need for a radical change in the social and moral destinies of humanity.

The author depicts a tragic picture of the society of his time and denounces the corruption engendered by the power of money, uncontrolled passions, selfishness and spiritual ignominy. This novel - the last work of the great writer - exposes a finished picture of Russian society in the mid-nineteenth century.

Dostoevsky is the quintessential master at painting with words how people establish perverse relationships, manipulate and corrupt each other for money, and manifest bestial passions. The death of Karamazov - a cruel and cynical landowner - casts suspicion on two of his sons, who have more than one reason to hate their father.

The third son, Alyosha, kind and pure, is free from all charges and projects into the future. This novel summarizes Dostoevsky's philosophical and religious concern: universal brotherhood, the emergence of a "barbarous" Russia, and the recovery of a true religious feeling.

The Karamazov brothers

5/5 - (11 votes)

5 comments on "3 best books by Fyodor Dostoyevsky"

  1. I do not know this author and the truth I would like to know his books. But I only read recommended books so I ask. Which book do you recommend I start reading? Thanks

    Reply
  2. For me:
    The Brothers Karamazov (read 2 times)
    Crime and Punishment (read 2 times)
    The Idiot (read 2 times)
    The teenager (read 2 times)
    The eternal husband
    Memories of the subsoil (read 2 times)
    Humiliated and offended
    The double
    The Demons (read 2 times)
    The player (read 2 times)
    White Nights
    Poor people
    Memories of the dead house
    And I only read Fyodor, the rest bores me

    Reply
    • Hello Jose.
      Your level of depth in his work is so much that everything else will seem insignificant. Literary Stendhal syndrome?

      Reply
  3. Thanks for this memory to the Great Dosto !!
    I would put them in this order:
    The Karamazov brothers
    Crime and Punishment
    Memories of the Subsoil.
    (The idiot too but would come fourth or fifth)
    Greetings and thanks again for dedicating this blog to you.

    Reply

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