Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, Demons, The Idiot – the complex and prolific Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) is responsible for some of our greatest literary works and most enduring characters. He is acknowledged by critics as a pre-eminent writer of psychological fiction and a precursor of twentieth-century existentialism.

Set in the troubled political and social world of nineteenth-century Russia, this book describes how Dostoevsky’s craving for social justice spurred his quest for innovative literary form. Robert Bird traces Dostoevsky’s path from being his impoverished family’s brightest hope to political rebellion and, finally, to becoming a writer who fought his battles through the printed word. Bird considers the period Dostoevsky spent in prison after his arrest and near-execution in 1849 and his subsequent exile with hard labour in Siberia, demonstrating how these gruelling experiences contributed to the writing of such unclassifiable fiction as Notes from Underground. This new critical interpretation of Dostoevsky’s work and biography will pique the interest of any lover of literature and Russian history.