It is a work of great humanity; Dostoevsky portrays the inmates of the prison with sympathy for their plight, and also expresses admiration for their energy, ingenuity and talent. Very often among a certain highly intelligent type of people, quite paradoxical ideas will establish themselves. But they have suffered so much in their lives for these ideas, and have paid so high a price for them that it becomes very painful, indeed almost impossible, for them to part with them.” In 1932 The House of the Dead was made into a film, directed by Vasili Fyodorov and starring Nikolay Khmelyov. The script was devised by the Russian writer and critic Viktor Shklovsky who also had a role as an actor. Fedor Dostoïeffsky (1862). Prison Life in Siberia. Translated by Edwards, H. Sutherland. London: J. & R. Maxwell (published 1888). Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.

All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. The novel has also been published under the titles Memoirs from the House of The Dead, Notes from the Dead House (or Notes from a Dead House), and Notes from the House of the Dead. Here there is a world's apart, unlike everything else, with laws of its own, its own dress, its own manners and customs, and here is the house of the living dead - life as nowhere else and a people apart." And the story of this living dead is what Dostoevsky brings to us readers. Based loosely on his own prison experience, this semi-autobiographical novel chronicles the ten-year prison life of Alexander Petrovich in a Siberian prison.The House of the Dead ( Russian: Записки из Мёртвого дома, Zapiski iz Myortvovo doma) is a semi-autobiographical novel published in 1860–2 [1] in the journal Vremya [2] by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It has also been published in English under the titles Notes from the House of the Dead, Memoirs from the House of the Dead and Notes from a Dead House, which are more literal translations of the Russian title. Excellent. . . . Dostoevsky’s constant preoccupation is the meaning of human freedom and the prisoners’ preservation of their dignity.”— Harper’s Magazine In 1849, Dostoevsky was sentenced to four years at hard labor in a Siberian prison camp for participating in a socialist discussion group. The novel he wrote after his release, based on notes he smuggled out, not only brought him fame, but also founded the tradition of Russian prison writing. Notes from a Dead House(sometimes translated as The House of the Dead) depicts brutal punishments, feuds, betrayals, and the psychological effects of confinement, but it also reveals the moments of comedy and acts of kindness that Dostoevsky witnessed among his fellow prisoners. One can feel that drowsiness the whole time reading the book, which for me, makes it the most difficult Dostoevsky, not due to the intellectual exhaustion, but the emotional. Orlov is a particularly terrifying character, and he stands out as the worst of those imprisoned alongside Aleksandr. He is defiant and has hardened himself to pain. His arrogance almost leads to his death. Isaiah Fomich

A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact. I must admit even given that stark horrifying nature of the world described, the narrator can be waffly, repetitious and a little annoying. You will meet a parade of extraordinary characters but you know they aren’t going to come together into any kind of drama. Just like real life, people come and go and our narrator has no idea what happened to them. One of the most harrowingly universal books Dostoevsky ever wrote. . . . It’s cause for no small celebration that the extraordinary series of translations by Pevear and Volokhonsky has now seized on Notes from The House of the Dead.”— The Buffalo NewsSee the Introduction by Joseph Frank in Dostoevsky, Fyodor (2004). The House of the Dead and Poor Folk. Translated by Constance Garnett. Barnes and Noble. ISBN 9781593081942.