Joseph frank, Dostoevsky: The Miraculous fears, 1865-1871,Princeton University Press, 1995. The volume of Frank's major five-volume literary-historical study that covers the period of composition of The Idiot.
bruce a. French, Dostoevsky's "Idiot": Dialogue and the Spiritually Good Life,Northwestern University Press, Evanston, 2001. rené Girard, Fyodor Dostoevsky: Resurrection from the Underground,tr. J. Williams, Crossroads, New York, 1997. An English translation of Girard's 1963 essay Dostoïevski: du double à l'unité,indispensable for its commentary on the erotic/mimetic aspects of Dostoevsky's work. romano guardini, Der Mensch und der Glaube: Versuche iiber die religiose Existenz in Dostojewskijsgrossen Romanen,Hegner, Leipzig, 1932. (French translation: L'Univers religieux de Dostoïevski,Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1947.) An important interpretation of the Christian structure of Dostoevsky's work as a whole, never translated into English. vyacheslav ivanov, Freedom and the Tragic Life: A Study in Dostoevsky,tr. Norman Cameron, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1968. A classic study of Dostoevsky by one of the major Russian symbolist poets.
liza knapp (éd.), Dostoevsky's "The Idiot": A Critical Companion,Northwestern University Press, Evanston, 1998.
olga meerson, Dostoevsky's Taboos,Studies of the Harriman Institute, Dresden University Press, Dresden-Munich, 1998. study of the meta-psychology of tabooing and the meanings of the unsaid in Dostoevsky.
robin feuer miller, Dostoevsky and "The Idiot": Author, Narrator, and Reader,Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1981.
Konstantin mochulsky, Dostoevsky, His Life and Work,tr. Michael A. Minihan, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1967. The work of a distinguished émigré scholar, first published in 1947 and still the best critical biography of Dostoevsky.
Harriet murav, Holy Foolishness: Dostoevsky's Novels and the Poetics of Cultural Critique,Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1992. george pattison and diane OENNING Thompson, Dostoevsky and the Christian Tradition,Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2001.
edward wasiolek, Dostoevsky: The Notebooks for "The Idiot",tr. Katherine Strelsky, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1967. Dostoevsky's notebooks and drafts in preparation for writing The Idiot.
CHRONOLOGY
DATE
AUTHOR'S LIFE
LITERARY CONTEXT
1821
Born in Moscow.
1823-31
Pushkin: Evgeny Onegin.
1825
1830
Stendhaclass="underline" Le Rouge et le Noir.
1833-7
At school in Moscow.
1834
Family purchases estate of Darovoe.
Pushkin: The Queen of Spades.
1835
Balzac: Le Père Goriot.
1836
Gogoclass="underline" The Government Inspector.
l837
Death of mother.
Enters St Petersburg Academy
of Military Engineering.
Dickens: Pickwick Papers.Death of Pushkin in duel.
1839
Death of father, assumed murdered by serfs.
Stendhaclass="underline" La Chartreuse de Parme.
1840
Lermontov: A Hero of Our Time.
1841
Death of Lermontov in duel.
1842
Gogoclass="underline" Dead Soulsand The Overcoat.
1844
Graduates, but resigns commission in order to pursue literary career.
1845
Completes Poor Folk- acclaimed by the critic Belinsky.
1846
Publication of Poor Folkand The Double.
1847
Breaks with Belinsky. Joins Petrashevsky circle. "The Landlady", "A Novel in Nine Letters", "A Petersburg Chronicle".
Herzen: Who is to Blame?Herzen leaves Russia. Goncharov: An Ordinary Story.
1848
"A Faint Heart" and "White
Nights".
Death of Belinsky. Thackeray: Vanity Fair.
1849
Netochka Nezvanova.Arrested and imprisoned in Peter and Paul Fortress. Mock execution. Sentenced to hard labour and Siberian exile.
DATE
AUTHOR'S LIFE
LITERARY CONTEXT
1850
Arrives at Omsk penal colony.
Turgenev: A Month in the Country.Herzen: From the Other Shore.Dickens: David Copperfield.
1851
1852
Tolstoy: Childhood.Turgenev: A Sportsman's Notebook.Death of Gogol.
1853-6
1854
Posted to Semipalatinsk.
1855
1856
Turgenev: Rudin.
1857
Marries Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva.
Flaubert: Madame Bovary.Baudelaire: Les Fleurs du mal.
1859
The Friend of the Family.Returns to St Petersburg.
Turgenev: A Nest of Gentlefolk.Goncharov: Oblomov.Tolstoy: Family Happiness.Darwin: The Origin of Species.
1860
Starts publication of House of the Dead.
Turgenev: On the Eve.
George Eliot: The Mill on the Floss.
Birth of Chekhov.
1861
Timecommences publication. The Insulted and Injured.