A tale of a provincial family desperate to better itself through a marriage of their daughter. The old man is almost forced into a wedding that is expected to last for a short period before he dies and leaves his fortune to the young girl. But not everything is going as planned. The story provides an brilliant insight into the desperation, psychology, gossip, and rivalry of provincial merchants trying to better their position in life.

Alexei Ivanovich, a tutor working for a Russian family living in a suite at a German hotel. The patriarch of the family, The General, is indebted to the Frenchman Des Grieux and has mortgaged his property in Russia to pay only a small amount of his debt. Alexei is hopelessly in love with Polina, the General's stepdaughter, and swears an oath of servitude to her.

Aleksandr Petrovich lives through a spiritual re-awakening that culminates with his release from the prison camp. The narrator has been sentenced to penalty deportation to Siberia and ten years of hard labour for murdering his wife. Dostoyevsky skillfully portrays the inmates of the prison with sympathy for their plight, and admiration for their energy, ingenuity and talent.

Golyadkin is a low-level bureaucrat struggling to succeed. His doctor tells him that his behaviour being dangerously antisocial should improve in cheerful company. Golyadkin resolves to try this, and leaves the office. He arrives uninvited at a birthday party and is asked to leave later. On his way home through a snowstorm, he encounters his double, who looks exactly like him. They soon become friends and we witness this surreal evolving relationship.

The author of the diary and the diary itself are, of course, imaginary. Nevertheless it is clear that such persons as the writer of these notes not only may, but positively must, exist in our society, when we consider the circumstances in the midst of which our society is formed. I have tried to expose to the view of the public more distinctly than is commonly done, one of the characters of the recent past.

Do we understand the true meaning of Christmas? Dostoyevsky invites us to follow the story of a 6 year old boy trying to survive on a cold winter day. Other stories in this collection include: The Peasant Marey, The Crocodile, Bobok, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man.

The Dostoyevsky Collection presents the four masterworks for which Russian literary giant Fyodor Dostoyevsky is best known, his two novellas The Gambler and Notes from Underground, and his two lengthier masterpieces Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. The Dostoyevsky Collection – Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Gambler and The Brothers Karamazov includes an image gallery and a link to a free audio recording of The Brothers Karamazov.

Often called the first existentialist work, Dostoyevsky’s 1864 Notes from Underground touches on many of the philosophical problems dealt with in the Russian master’s novels. The story is written in the form of a journal belonging to an unnamed man who withdrawn himself from society into an underground existence. The first part is a monologue in which the narrator philosophizes and then laughs at his ideas; the second part is a recounting of adventures from the narrator’s life, which exemplify some of the ideas propounded in the first part of the story. Notes from Underground is considered one of Dostoyevsky’s most powerful and original stories and marks the starting point of his literary maturity. Includes image gallery.

The Brothers Karamazov is the final novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Dostoyevsky spent nearly two years writing The Brothers Karamazov, which was completed and published in November 1880. The book is a passionate philosophical novel set in 19th century Russia, that enters deeply into the ethical debates of God, free will, and morality. It is a spiritual drama of moral struggles concerning faith, doubt, and reason, set against a modernizing Russia. Dostoyevsky composed much of the novel in Staraya Russa, which inspired the main setting. Since its publication, it has been acclaimed all over the world by intellectuals as one of the supreme achievements in literature.