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A profound
psychologist and philosopher, Dostoyevsky depicted with
remarkable insight the depth and complexity of the human soul.
His powerful though generally humorless narrative style, his
understanding of the intricacies of character, especially the
pathological conscience, and his interest in sin and redemption
made him a giant among novelists.
Dostoyevsky was
born and raised in Moscow. His father, a military surgeon and an
alcoholic of despotic temperament, was brutally killed by his
own serfs. This event haunted Dostoyevsky all his life and
perhaps accounts in part for the preoccupation with murder and
guilt in his writings. Dostoyevsky attended military engineering
school in St. Petersburg but soon abandoned this career for
writing.
His first
published work, Poor Folk (1846), which brought him immediate
critical and public recognition, reveals his characteristic
compassion for the downtrodden. At about this time Dostoyevsky
became involved with a group of radical Utopians. The discovery
of their illegal printing press brought about their arrest.
Dostoyevsky was sentenced to four years in a Siberian penal
colony. During this period he suffered great physical and mental
pain, including repeated attacks of epilepsy. He abandoned his
belief in the liberal, atheistic ideologies of Western Europe
and turned wholeheartedly to religion and to the belief that
Orthodox Russia was destined to be the spiritual leader of the
world. After several years of obligatory military service in
Siberia, he was allowed to return to St. Petersburg.
Dostoyevsky
joined his beloved brother Mikhail in editing the magazine Time,
which serialized The Insulted and The Injured (1861 -1862) and
the record of his experience in the penal colony, The House of
the Dead (1862). Notes from the Underground (1864), a detailed
study of neurotic suffering, began the greatest period of
Dostoyevsky's literary career. Crime and Punishment, a brilliant
portrait of sin, remorse, and redemption through sacrifice,
followed in 1866. His next novel, The Idiot (1868), concerns a
Christ figure, a meek and noble man whose effect on those around
him is tragic. The Possessed (1871-1872) is a violent
denunciation of the leftists and revolutionaries that
Dostoyevsky had previously admired. This theme is central to the
enormously complex plot and character development of his
masterpiece, The Brothers Karamazov (1879-1880), generally
thought to be one of the finest novels ever written.
Dostoyevsky died
of a lung hemorrhage complicated by an attack of epilepsy.
Translate the
following sentences into English.
1. Достоевский знаменит проникновенным психологическим
анализом глубокой и сложной человеческой души.
2. Он понимал тонкости характера и особенно патологического
сознания.
3. Он также знаменит вниманием, которое он проявлял в своих
произведениях к убийству и преступлению (вине), греху и
раскаянию.
4. Его книги отражают сочувствие к угнетенным и часто
представляют из себя подробный отчет о моральных страданиях.
5. Он часто страдал от физической боли и психический болезней, в
том числе от приступов эпилепсии.
6. Для его книг характерно сложное развитие сюжета и характеров.
7. Достоевский издавал журнал, который печатал его произведения
частями.
1. Dostoevsky is
famous for his profound psychological analysis of the depth and
complexity of the human soul.
2. He understood the intricacies of character, especially of
pathological conscience.
3. He is also famous for his preoccupation with murder and
guilt, sin and remorse in his writings.
4. His books reveal compassion for the downtrodden and are often
a detailed study of moral suffering.
5. He often suffered great physical pain and mental diseases,
including attacks of epilepsy.
6. His books are characterised by complex plot and character
development.
7. Dostoevsky edited a magazine which serialised some of his
books.
Из пособия "ЕГЭ. Английский язык.
Устные темы" Занина Е.Л. (2010, 272с.) - Part
two.
Additional topics.
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