Selections Three Novels by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Whatever topics of his writing were, Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) invariably assumed a view of life as seen from the literal or metaphoric underground. His uniquely incisive analysis of the human nature combined with an invention that can only be compared with Joyce's "stream of consciousness" - polyphony of narrative. English and American readers are sometimes embarrassed by the spiritual openness and nakedness in which Dostoyevsky's characters appear in his novels. This, however, is not really related to the so-called Russian character; we deal with a method of writing that requires absolute honesty and nakedness before the reader. Each character's voice becomes a musical instrument. Those instruments together perform a symphony coming from the underground, de profundis, and this symphony is hard to forget.