People and sources
Quotes are checked word for word against the texts below, where they are in the public domain (originals and translations, with site furniture and licence text removed). Where a person's works are still in copyright, a quote rests on a checked citation instead, given on its page.
Fyodor Dostoevsky Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский
Russian novelist and journalist. Sentenced to death in 1849 for a socialist reading circle, reprieved on the scaffold and sent to a Siberian prison camp, he came back to write novels in which ideas are argued out by characters who live and die by them. Because his novels give the strongest lines to people the book contests, many of his best-known quotes are a character's view, not his.
| Work | Year | Original | English | Quotes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poor Folk Бедные люди His first novel: letters between a poor copying clerk and the young woman he loves from across a courtyard. | 1846 | text | C. J. Hogarth (1915) | 0 |
| White Nights Белые ночи A lonely Petersburg dreamer meets a young woman over four white nights. | 1848 | text | Constance Garnett (1918) | 2 |
| Humiliated and Insulted Униженные и оскорблённые A young writer narrates the ruin of two families by a cynical prince. | 1861 | text | none in the public domain | 1 |
| The House of the Dead Записки из Мёртвого дома A fictionalised memoir of four years in a Siberian prison camp, based on his own. | 1862 | text | anonymous translator (Everyman's Library) (1911) | 3 |
| Winter Notes on Summer Impressions Зимние заметки о летних впечатлениях Travel sketches of Europe, with an attack on the bourgeois West and the Crystal Palace. | 1863 | text | none in the public domain | 0 |
| Notes from Underground Записки из подполья A spiteful, hyper-conscious retired official argues against reason, progress and himself. | 1864 | text | Constance Garnett (1918) | 7 |
| Crime and Punishment Преступление и наказание A poor student, Raskolnikov, kills a pawnbroker to prove a theory, and is undone by it. | 1866 | text | Constance Garnett (1914) | 11 |
| The Gambler Игрок A tutor in a German spa town falls for roulette and for his employer's stepdaughter; written in 26 days to pay a debt. | 1866 | text | C. J. Hogarth (1915) | 0 |
| The Idiot Идиот Prince Myshkin, a 'positively good man', returns to Russia and is torn apart between two women. | 1869 | text | Constance Garnett (1913) | 7 |
| The Eternal Husband Вечный муж A widower is visited by the husband of a woman they both loved. | 1870 | text | none in the public domain | 0 |
| Demons Бесы A provincial town is wrecked by a revolutionary cell; also translated as The Possessed and Devils. | 1872 | text | Constance Garnett (1916) | 5 |
| A Writer's Diary Дневник писателя His one-man monthly of essays, stories and polemics (1873, 1876–1877, 1880–1881). Contains xenophobic and antisemitic passages. | 1873 | text | none in the public domain | 3 |
| Bobok Бобок A failed writer overhears the dead talking in a cemetery. | 1873 | text | Constance Garnett (1919) | 0 |
| The Adolescent Подросток A nineteen-year-old illegitimate son with a secret plan to become a Rothschild; also translated as A Raw Youth. | 1875 | text | none in the public domain | 1 |
| The Meek One Кроткая A pawnbroker talks to himself beside the body of his young wife, who has jumped from a window; also translated as A Gentle Creature. | 1876 | text | none in the public domain | 1 |
| The Dream of a Ridiculous Man Сон смешного человека A man about to shoot himself dreams of a sinless planet, and of how he corrupted it. | 1877 | text | Constance Garnett (1919) | 2 |
| The Pushkin Speech Пушкинская речь His speech at the unveiling of the Pushkin monument in Moscow, on Russia's 'universal responsiveness'. | 1880 | text | none in the public domain | 1 |
| The Brothers Karamazov Братья Карамазовы Three brothers, a murdered father, and the questions of God, freedom and guilt; his last novel. | 1880 | text | Constance Garnett (1912) | 16 |
| Letters Письма His letters, 1838–1881. The year is the earliest; each quote gives its own date and addressee. | 1838 | text | none in the public domain | 3 |