"Into a compelling real portrait of nineteenth-century Russian society Dostoevsky introduces his ideal hero, the saintly Prince Myshkin. The tensions subsequently unleashed by the hero's innocence, truthfulness, and humility betray the inadequacy of his moral idealism and disclose the spiritual emptiness of a society that cannot accommodate him. Myshkin's mission ends in idiocy and darkness, but it is the world that is rotten, not he. The Idiot (1868),...

Based on a true event, in which a young revolutionary was murdered by his comrades, The Possessed provoked a storm of controversy for its harsh depiction of a ruthless band of Russian intellectuals, atheists, socialists, anarchists, and other radicals who attempt to incite the population of a small provincial town to revolt against the government. In contrast to Dostoevsky's savage portrait of these radicals and the violent ideas that have possessed...

The violent lives of three sons are exposed when their father is murdered and each one attempts to come to terms with his guilt.

Contains eight short works by the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Crime and punishment: "Raskolnikov kills for money, but in the process finds himself questioning concepts of morality, good and evil, and the nature of the human soul"--Back cover. The gambler: "The tale of a young tutor who descends into the calamitous world of gambling to try to improve his fortunes and win the heart of the woman he loves"--Back cover. Notes from underground: "Introduces us to the 'Underground Man' and his conflicting thoughts and...