The Diary is Dostoevsky's attempt to create a new genre maximally open to present experience and unforeseen historical change--to capitalize on the excitement of an author's creative process, which would itself become material for art, and to demonstrate how an artist reflects on experience as it happens.
Publishers Weekly This concluding volume of Dostoevsky's experimental one-man journal (he was its editor, publisher and sole contributor until his death in 1881) is a melange of political commentary, observations on current events, reportage of sensational murders, philosophical musings and literary criticism on Tolstoy, Turgenev and Pushkin. Dostoevsky's idealized vision of the Russian people as a nascent fellowship of Christ who reject the values of the godless, materialistic West is a recurrent theme. Offering a ringside seat to the growth of German nationalism under Bismarck, the Russo-Turkish War, political instability in France's Third Republic and the cauldron of Eastern European nationalisms, these voluble outpourings are also of interest for their sketches of ideas developed more fully in The Brothers Karamazov. Dostoevsky's vicious, poisonous tirades against Jews reveal the depth of his anti-Semitic prejudice. Also included is the story ``The Dream of a Ridiculous Man,'' which reflects his search for life's meaning and longing for redemption. Lantz is professor of Slavic languages and literatures at the University of Toronto. (June)

Writer's Diary Volume 1: 1873-1876 (Writer's Diary, 1873-1876)

A Writer's Diary, Volume Two, 1877-1881

A Writer's Diary, Volume One, 1873-1876

A Writer's Diary [Volume 1: 1873-1876]

Дневник писателя. 1873-1876

Дневник писателя. 1877-1881

. . 1875-1877

. . 1847-1875

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881; Lantz, K. A; Morson, Gary Saul, 1948-

Fëdor Michajlovič Dostoevskij

Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Marlboro Press, The

TriQuarterly Books

Hydra Books

1st pbk. ed, Evanston, Ill, 1997, ©1994

United States, United States of America

Evanston, Illinois, 2008

Volume 1, 1997

July 20, 1997

This is the first paperback edition of the complete collection of writings that has been called Dostoevsky's boldest experiment with literary form; it is a uniquely encyclopedic forum of fictional and nonfictional genres. A Writer's Diary began as a column in a literary journal, but by 1876 Dostoevsky was able to bring it out as a complete monthly publication with himself as editor, publisher, and sole contributor, suspending work on The Brothers Karamazov in order to do so.
The Diary's radical format was matched by the extreme range of its contents. In a single frame A Writer's Diary was to combine an astonishing variety of material: short stories; humorous sketches; reports on sensational crimes; historical predictions; portraits of famous people; autobiographical pieces; and plans for stories, some of which were never written while others appeared later in the Diary itself. A range of authorial and narrative voices and stances, and an elaborate scheme of allusions and cross-references, preserve and present Dostoevsky's conception of his work as a literary whole.
Volume I begins with an extensive study by Gary Saul Morson, which provides a fascinating context for the work's form and content.

<p><p>winner Of The Aatseel Outstanding Translation Award<br></p> <h3>publishers Weekly</h3> <p>was Dostoevsky's A Writer's Diary ``a Daring Experiment In Form,'' An Integral Work Of Art, As Morson Claims, Or Was This Monthly Periodical--with Dostoevsky Its Editor, Publisher And Sole Contributor--a Mere Hodge-podge Of Articles, Sketches, Reportage And Short Stories? Readers Pondering This Question Will Gain Uncanny Insight Into The Inner Conflicts That Shaped Dostoevsky's Character And Thought As They Confront A Staggering Diversity Of Genres--self-parody, Utopian And Anti-utopian Sketches, Autobiographical Reminiscences, Vignettes Celebrating Prosaic Incidents In The Lives Of Ordinary People, Accounts Of Suicides And Sensational Trials, Jingoistic Polemics, Essays On Tolstoy, Pushkin And George Sand. This Forceful Translation By Lantz, A Slavic Professor At The University Of Toronto, Preserves The Raw, Rough Edge Of The Diary (whose Last Issue Was In 1881). In His Illuminating Introduction, Morson, A Slavic Professor At Northwestern, Shows How The Diary Embodies Dostoevsky's Belief That Salvation Or Social Uplift Can Only Occur Gradually Through Individual Self-betterment. (july)</p>

This is the first paperback edition of the complete collection of writings that has been called Dostoevsky's boldest experiment with literary form; it is a uniquely encyclopedic forum of fictional and nonfictional genres. A Writer's Diary began as a column in a literary journal, but by 1876 Dostoevsky was able to bring it out as a complete monthly publication with himself as editor, publisher, and sole contributor, suspending work on The Brothers Karamazov in order to do so.
The Diary's radical format was matched by the extreme range of its contents. In a single frame A Writer's Diary was to combine an astonishing variety of material: short stories; humorous sketches; reports on sensational crimes; historical predictions; portraits of famous people; autobiographical pieces; and plans for stories, some of which were never written while others appeared later in the Diary itself. A range of authorial and narrative voices and stances, and an elaborate scheme of allusions and cross-references, preserve and present Dostoevsky's conception of his work as a literary whole.
Volume 2 contains a comprehensive index to both volumes.

The second volume of the complete collection of writings that has been called Dostoevsky's boldest experiment with literary form; it is a uniquely encyclopedic forum of fictional and nonfictional genres.

2 v. (1455 p.) ; 22 cm
Translation of: Dnevnik pisatelia
Includes bibliographical references (p. 1379-1443) and index
v. 1. 1873-1876 -- v. 2. 1877-1881

2024-07-01