Notes from a dead house
(Book)

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Published
Pantheon Books : New York, 2015.
ISBN
9780307959591 (hardcover), 9780307959591, 0307959597
Physical Desc
xvi, 311 pages ; 26 cm
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LocationCall NumberStatusDue Date
Adult Fiction (3rd floor)F DOSTOYE, FChecked OutApril 3, 2024

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Published
Pantheon Books : New York, 2015.
Format
Book
Language
English
ISBN
9780307959591 (hardcover), 9780307959591, 0307959597

Notes

General Note
Varying titles based on publishing history.
General Note
First publication in "Vremya" (Russian literary magazine), March 1861.
General Note
First publication in book form,1862.
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
Description
In 1849 Dostoevsky was sentenced to four years at hard labor in a Siberian prison camp for his participation in a utopian socialist discussion group. The account he wrote after his release, based on notes he smuggled out, was the first book to reveal life inside the Russian penal system. The book 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) is filled with vivid details of brutal punishments, shocking conditions, feuds and betrayals, and the psychological effects of the loss of freedom, but it also describes moments of comedy and acts of kindness. There are grotesque bathhouse and hospital scenes that seem to have come straight from Dante's Inferno, alongside daring escape attempts, doomed acts of defiance, and a theatrical Christmas celebration that draws the entire community together in a temporary suspension of their grim reality. To get past government censors, Dostoevsky made his narrator a common-law criminal rather than a political prisoner, but the perspective is unmistakably his own. His incarceration was a transformative experience that nourished all his later works, particularly Crime and Punishment. Dostoevsky's narrator discovers that even among the most debased criminals there are strong and beautiful souls. His story reveals the prison as a tragedy both for the inmates and for Russia; it is, finally, a profound meditation on freedom: "The prisoner himself knows that he is a prisoner; but no brands, no fetters will make him forget that he is a human being.

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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Dostoyevsky, F., Pevear, R., & Volokhonsky, L. (2015). Notes from a dead house . New York.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. 2015. Notes From a Dead House. New York.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Notes From a Dead House New York, 2015.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, Richard Pevear, and Larissa Volokhonsky. Notes From a Dead House New York, 2015.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.