Fyodor Dostoevsky

Richard Peace (University of Bristol)
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Fedor [Fyodor] Dostoevsky was born on October 30th (old style) 1821, the second son of a doctor in a Moscow paupers' hospital. From an early age, Dostoevsky was acquainted with poverty and the psychological effects of illness. The domestic atmosphere was dominated by a strict father. The status of doctors in Russia was not very high - and even lower for a doctor in a paupers' hospital. Nevertheless the family managed to acquire a small estate, and as a young boy Dostoevsky came into contact with peasants (most clearly reflected in the late story The Peasant Marei (Muzhik Marei, 1876). His early literary education had been conditioned by the reading aloud of Gothic novels in the family circle, but his developing l…

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Citation: Peace, Richard. "Fyodor Dostoevsky". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 August 2003 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1292, accessed 29 March 2024.]

1292 Fyodor Dostoevsky 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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