The House of the Dead

This book was fairly short and has themes of imprisonment. Okay, it was freaking awesome as hell! Fyodor Dostoevsky does it again. This time with a semi-authobiographical classic! Russian fiction binges are also too brilliant - please do not hesitate to contact me on twitter @3ftMonster - if you too, are having a Russian Fiction binge at the moment. It's all good - everyone needs a cultural blast once in a while. 

I found this book on my travels into Russian fiction and thought I'd seen all there was to see of Dostoevsky - obviously I hadn't. 

Characters:

Goryanchikov is one of those special characters in the novel that you constantly feel sorry for. He's trapped in a prison camp - and he's a gentleman so he doesn't fit in - and his wife's there too and things can't possibly get any worse for him. They can, and they do. I was really enthralled by his sense of patriotism towards Russia though - he held that Dostoevskyan pessimism inside his patriotism - reflecting on what has become of this Russian change in society. 

Themes:

My favourite theme was probably pessimism. Pessimism is explored not in the Victorian sense, but in more of an enlightening way. For example: Goryanchikov is constantly brooding on what happens in Russia - but then ends up reflecting on change and society and realises that maybe it's not all that nice after all. A brilliant sense of inner-reflection mixed and blended with the urge of a societal uprising inside oneself is something that I haven't seen of Dostoevsky before and well - it worked really bloody well!

Storyline:

I love that this story is semi-autobiographical. It makes one wonder what life was like for Dostoevsky and how he coped with his changing view of Russia. What did he do about it? The reading experience is not the cliché sense of escapism or the idealistic viewpoint of being in the character's shoes - but a more introspective case of making one think about their own viewpoints towards their own homes and how this life is actually pretty tragic any way we look at it. 

Verdict:

I give this book 9

100% for characters: Brilliantly executed with some killer qualities. Dostoevsky has made a convincing, yet dark character a la Dmitri from The Brothers Karamazov once again. 

100% for themes: New themes that I haven't seen by Dostoevsky before - even though they are still underlined with this hardcore pessimism - it's nice to see.

100% for storyline: Semi-autobiography? Dostoevsky? Yep, I'll be right there!