Notes from the House of the DeadMaster translation of a neglected Russian classic into English Long before Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago came Dostoevsky's Notes from the House of the Dead, a compelling account of the horrific conditions in Siberian labor camps. First published in 1861, this novel, based on Dostoevsky's own experience as a political prisoner, is a forerunner of his famous novels Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. The characters and situations that Dostoevsky encountered in prison were so violent and extraordinary that they changed his psyche profoundly. Through that experience, he later said, he was resurrected into a new spiritual condition -- one in which he would create some of the greatest novels ever written. Including an illuminating introduction by James Scanlan on Dostoevsky's prison years, this totally new translation by Boris Jakim captures Dostoevsky's semi-autobiographical narrative -- at times coarse, at times intensely emotional, at times philosophical -- in rich American English. |
Contents
The House of the Dead | 8 |
First Impressions | 22 |
First Impressions Continued | 39 |
First Impressions Continued | 54 |
The First Month | 70 |
The First Month Continued | 84 |
New Acquaintances Petrov | 98 |
Determined Men Luchka | 111 |
The Show | 150 |
Prison Animals | 247 |
The Complaint | 259 |
Comrades | 277 |
The Escape | 291 |
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Common terms and phrases
Akim Akimych Alexander Petrovich Aley already asked Baklushin balalaika barracks beat beaten began bread brothers Circassians comrades convicts corporal punishment course crime cursing Dead didn’t doctors Dostoevsky drink drunk everything exile extremely eyes face fellow fortress Fyodor Dostoevsky Gazin Gorianchikov guard hand happened he’d he’s head honor hospital imprisonment Isay Fomich Kamarinskaya katorga Kedril kind Kirghiz kitchen knew Kobylin kopecks Kulikov later laughing laughter lived look loved Major murderer never night noblemen Old Believers once patients peasant penal labor penal servitude Petrov plank bed prison punishment quarreled remember roubles Russian screaming seemed sent sentenced sergeant shackles shouted Siberia silent Skuratov soldier someone sometimes sort soul sticks strange suddenly Sushilov talk Tatar tell there's there’s they’re thing thought Tobolsk told took town tramp Trans tsky turned victs vodka walked wanted ward What’s word