Fyodor Dostoevsky

He married a widow, Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva in 1857. The marriage was a complicated affair due to the complex nature of both the individuals involved. Even though the marriage was not happy, they loved each other too much to part ways.

He married Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina after the death of his first wife.

In addition to his wives, he had been romantically involved with several other women as well.

Dostoevsky was born in into a middle class family. His parents, Mikhail and Maria, were religious and hard-working. His father was a doctor and was very strict with his son.

His nanny Alena and his mother used to tell him many stories, sagas, and fairytales which kindled his rich imagination. He became aware about the works of various illustrious authors like Karamzin, Pushkin, Schiller, and Walter Scott.

He was sent to a French boarding school in 1833. Later on, he attended the Chermak boarding school. He felt like a misfit among his aristocratic classmates.

He joined the Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute in 1838. He did not like the institute at all and felt like a misfit. He was a kind-hearted soul who fought against corruption and helped poor farmers.

He started suffering epileptic attacks during 1839 after learning about the death of his father. He continued his studies and passed his exams.

He found work as a lieutenant engineer in 1843. The same year, his first literary work, a translation of the novel, ‘Eugenie Grandet’ was published. This was followed by several other translations.

He published his first novel ‘Poor Folk’ in 1846. It was described as Russia’s first social novel by the renowned critic Vissarion Belinsky, and became a huge commercial success.

He resigned from his military career in order to focus on his literary pursuits. His second novel, ‘The Double’ was also out in 1846. However, it did not do well and the failure of this novel affected his health.

He wrote several short stories for the magazine ‘Annals of the Fatherland’ from 1846 to 1848, but none of them performed well. He found himself in financial trouble as a result.

In 1846, he joined the Petrashevsky Circle, a literary discussion group that opposed the Tsarist autocracy.

His novel ‘Crime and Punishment’, a detective story, deals with the moral dilemmas faced by a poor student who murders an unscrupulous rich woman for money but is later overcome with guilt.

The novella ‘Notes from Underground’ is regarded as the first existential novel and is credited to have influenced many philosophers including Jean-Paul Sartre.

‘The Brothers Karamazov’, his longest ever work is considered to be his magnum opus. Set in the 19th century Russia, it tells the story of the three Karamazov brothers Alyosha, Ivan and Dmitri, and their struggles with moral issues like faith, doubt and reason.