A review by booklightexplorer
Notes from a Dead House by Fyodor Dostoevsky

3.5

 “What are we here for? We are not alive though we are living and we are not in our graves though we are dead.” 

 

In 1849 Dostoevsky was arrested for being part of a literary circle that discussed books critical to Tsarist Russia. Though he was sentenced to be executed for his participation, the “merciful Tsar Nicholas commutes his sentence at the very last minute. Instead of death, Dostoevsky was exiled to Siberia where he spent 4 years in prison doing hard labor. 

 

After serving his sentence, he continued writing for multiple literary journals. Due to the literary censorship laws at the time, he was unable to write about his own personal experience in a Siberian prison, but he was able to write this fictional novel which serves as close to a first-person account of his experience that he could deliver. 

 

Because he was considered part of the upper class prior to his conviction (despite losing all his rights and standing when he was sentence) one of his biggest struggles come from feeling alienated from his fellow inmates while he was there. His experience was not quite as brutal, (he was not required to undergo the lash for example) and he was able to afford better provisions. I found this element of his prison life and its effort on him fascinating. 

 

Overall, I found this novel intriguing and I can see how these experiences (and when he was about to be executed) impacted the writings of his later novels. He was fascinated by the criminal mind, their motivations, their justifications, the way they endure their punishments. 

If you plan on reading his other works, I definitely recommend this for a glimpse into what made him the man and writer he becomes. 

 

“Bad people are to be found everywhere, but even among the worst there may be something good.”