about the author

Bom in Moscow, Russia, in l82l, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

led a very unsettled life. When his mother died, his father

sent Fyodor and his brother Michail to an army engineering

school. But Fyodor did not like engineering, and he tumed

instead to art and literature.

At the age of twenty-five, Dostoyevsky published his

first novel, Poor Folk. This immediately made him famous,

and he became the darling of Russia. But during this time

he had also joined a group of revolutionaries who were

caught and sent to prison in Sibcria. After four years at

hard labor and several more years in the anny, Dostoyevsky

had plenty of material to use for future novels.

Among Dostoyevsky's greatest works are Crime and

Punishment, The Idiot, The Possessed, and The Brothers

Karamazov. Although these and other novels brought him

wealth, he could never manage to enjoy it. He was a

gambler, a troublcmaker, a man who always acted before

he thought, yet he was also a loving father and brother, and

a very generous person. His health had never been good,

however, so that between his sickness and his difficult life,

he seemed to grow old very quickly. Dostoyevsky died in

1881 at the age of sixty. He is known as one of Russia's

greatest writers.