Fyodor Dostoevsky

1821 – 1881 · died at about 60^[1][2]

Literature

Fun Facts About Fyodor Dostoevsky

• Fyodor Dostoevsky faced a firing squad in 1849, but the execution was stopped when a cart delivered the tsar's letter commuting the sentence. He retold the scene in The Idiot.^[1]
• Dostoevsky wrote The Gambler in 26 days to meet a deadline, dictating to the stenographer Anna Snitkina, who later became his wife.^[1]
• Dostoevsky took a job as a lieutenant engineer, and his first completed literary work was a translation of Balzac's novel Eugénie Grandet.^[1]
• In his Siberian prison camp, the New Testament was the only book Dostoevsky was allowed to read.^[1]
• Friedrich Nietzsche called Dostoevsky "the only psychologist from whom I had something to learn" in his book Twilight of the Idols.^[1][3][4]
• Dostoevsky's 1880 speech at the unveiling of the Pushkin memorial in Moscow drew thunderous applause, and even his longtime rival Ivan Turgenev embraced him.^[1][5][6]
• Fyodor Dostoevsky was alive at the same time as Thomas Jefferson — their lives overlapped for 5 years (1821–1826).^[1][2][7][8]
• Fyodor Dostoevsky and Charles Baudelaire were both born in 1821.^{[1][2][9][10]}

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was a Russian philosopher, novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influential masterpieces. Dostoevsky's literary works explore the human condition in the troubled political, social and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century Russia, and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most acclaimed novels include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872), The Adolescent (1875) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). His Notes from Underground, a novella published in 1864, is considered one of the first works of existentialist literature.^[1]

Contemporaries

Victor Hugo

60 yr overlap

Charles Darwin

60 yr overlap

Giuseppe Verdi

60 yr overlap

Richard Wagner

60 yr overlap

Otto von Bismarck

60 yr overlap

Frederick Douglass

60 yr overlap

Karl Marx

60 yr overlap

Herman Melville

60 yr overlap

Queen Victoria

60 yr overlap

Susan B. Anthony

60 yr overlap

Florence Nightingale

60 yr overlap

Walt Whitman

60 yr overlap

Their World

Questions About Fyodor Dostoevsky

When was Fyodor Dostoevsky born?

Fyodor Dostoevsky was born on November 11, 1821, and died on February 9, 1881.

How old was Fyodor Dostoevsky at death?

Fyodor Dostoevsky was born on November 11, 1821, and died on February 9, 1881, at age 59.

What was Fyodor Dostoevsky known for?

Fyodor Dostoevsky was known for: Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was a Russian philosopher, novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influential masterpieces. Dostoevsky's literary works explore the human condition in the troubled political, social and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century Russia, and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most acclaimed novels include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872), The Adolescent (1875) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). His Notes from Underground, a novella published in 1864, is considered one of the first works of existentialist literature.

Who was alive at the same time as Fyodor Dostoevsky?

Fyodor Dostoevsky's closest contemporary was Victor Hugo. Their lives overlapped for 60 years.