Dostoevsky

Library Journal

This is the third in a projected five-volume literary biography of Dostoevsky. The first two volumes ( LJ 9/1/76; 11/15/83) have been widely acclaimed; the present volume, which covers Dostoevsky's return to Petersburg and the resumption of his literary activities following his exile in Siberia, is no less an achievement. It is to Frank's credit that he has analyzed so carefully these formative years, usually neglected by scholars, and produced this gracefully written volume of intellectual history. It is a work of vast erudition and of absorbing interest that can hardly be recommended too highly. Essential for all major collections. Joyce S. Toomre, Russian Research Ctr., Harvard Univ.

Helen Muchnic

...a narrative of such compelling precision, fairness and insight as to give the reader a sense not just of acquaintanceship, but of complete identification with Dostoevsky, of looking through his eyes and understanding just his mind.
— Boston Globe

Robin Feuer Miller

Just as Frank's magnificent third volume... unravels an immensefully important and complex period in Dostoevksy's life and, along the way, evokes and explicates the Russia of the mid nineteenth century... Frank's effort as a biographer of Dostoevsky has been a unique and successful experiment in the bipographical form.
— Philadelphia Inquirer

Donald Fanger

The first and last thing to say about Joseph Frank's ongoing enterprise... is that it is unrivaled in both its ambition and achievement. This is simply the most reliable, detailed, balanced and up to date account we have of the most influential novelist of the last 150 years. It is also the most fascinating... the present volume tells the story of transformation. There is hardly a more dramatic one to be found anywhere.
— The Boston Globe

Boston Globe

. . . a narrative of such compelling precision, thoroughness and insight as to give the reader a sense not just of acquaintanceship, but of complete identification with Dostoevsky, of looking through his eyes and understanding with his mind.
— Helen Muchnic

Washington Post

. . . will rightly be considered one of the finest achievements of American literary scholarship.
— René Wellek

The New Republic

This is unquestionably the best account we have of Dostoevsky in his time.
— Donald Fanger

Boston Globe

. . . a narrative of such compelling precision, thoroughness and insight as to give the reader a sense not just of acquaintanceship, but of complete identification with Dostoevsky, of looking through his eyes and understanding with his mind.

The New Republic

This is unquestionably the best account we have of Dostoevsky in his time.

Washington Post

. . . will rightly be considered one of the finest achievements of American literary scholarship.

Washington Post

. . . will rightly be considered one of the finest achievements of American literary scholarship.