Educated as a military engineer, Dostoevsky soon abandoned this for a career in writing. His first novel was Poor People (1846). Sentenced to death in 1849 for radical and revolutionary thought, his sentence was commuted to exile in Siberia. From this experience, he wrote Memoirs from the House of the Dead (1861-62). He returned from exile in 1854, married in 1857 and, after travelling in Europe, founded a magazine, Epokha, with his brother, in which was published Notes From The Underground in 1864. His first major and successful novel, Crime and Punishment, was published in 1866 and was followed by The Gambler (1867), The Idiot (1868-69), and The Possessed (1869-72). His last novel, The Brothers Karamazov (1880), was also his greatest masterpiece. |
