Most famous for his deeply psychological novels, Russian writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky had a rough start which might have given roots to his dramatic writings. His father, Mikhail Andreevich, was a military surgeon and was violent and abusive. He is believed to have been murdered by his own serfs on his small estate south of Moscow in 1839. On the other hand, his mother was patient, gentle and spiritual. Starting first as a translator in Petersburg , he soon delved into writing. His first novel Poor Folk (1846) was well received. Not just the general readers but leftist critics too hailed him as Russia’s ‘next Gogol.’
His next was a doppelgänger piece of literature, The Double (1846) which had many psychological elements. Later his ten years of penal servitude and exile exposed him to the harsh realities faced by the public under Tsar Nicholas 1, class divides and inmates’ conditions. This brought out the novel Notes from the House of the Dead (1860-62). He believed that the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 would heal the deep divide between Russia’s educated minority and her peasant masses, thereby creating conditions for a strong Russian nation to emerge. His novels spoke of the utilitarian, radical, and utopian socialist thought ‘infecting’ Russia, from aping the West. ( adapted from Dostoevsky blog).
His famous novels dealt with intensity of human emotions, murders storylines , political issues and radicality. Crime and Punishment, (1866), The Idiot (1868) , Demons (1872) and Brothers Karamazov (1880) all touch on the above topics and additionally on matters of ambition, jealousy and guilt. He is amongst the many renowned Russian literary figures like Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak and Velimir Khlebnikov.
Mr. Prokharchin - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Mr. Prokharchin is a short story written in 1846 by Fyodor Dostoevsky and first published in the Annals of the Fatherland.
After the death of the miserly and much loathed man, his landlady finds out that not everyone who appears in a particular way is their reality. His selfishness leads him into a solitary life. This story has many similarities to Dickens’s Ebenezer Scrooge but there is no happy ending. On his death, they discover that the man was wealthy and was living in the impoverished way voluntarily. A large sum of money is found hidden inside his mattress.
Prokharchin is a patronym derived from the Russian word for 'grub' or 'vittles', kharchi.
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