Dostoevsky's Democracy

"Drawing on contemporary criticism, Dostoevsky's own prison experience, and his later masterpiece novels, this provocative book inquires into the great Russian writer's 'sense of the demos'--in equal parts mystical, traumatic, and inspirational. A fascinating narrative."--Caryl Emerson, Princeton University

"This elegant and deeply argued book offers a major revision of the standard narrative of Dostoevsky's postexile emergence as a convert to Orthodoxy and conservative nationalism. Nancy Ruttenburg presents a provocative and persuasive reading of Dostoevsky's first novel, Notes from the House of the Dead, situating it as the wellspring of his particular form of utopian Russian populism."--Dale E. Peterson, Amherst College

Robin Feuer Miller - Slavic Review

Dostoevsky's Democracy brims with surprising insights.

Nancy Ruttenburg is professor of comparative literature, English, and Slavic literatures and chair of the Department of Comparative Literature at New York University. She is the author of "Democratic Personality: Popular Voice and the Trial of American Authorship".