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Letters 1849-1859 A few years ago, I read several craft books that left me with the impression that the best writing was improvised—that the real authors were like jazz musicians who could just jam with a natural flow.  I heard that Robert Frost quote: “No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader,” andContinue reading

“A Little Hero” (1857) “A Little Hero” has a marvelous ability to render a breadth of situations and characters that give the story a lifelike quality, all the while unifying it all through a central theme, much like Netochka Nezvanova.  This theme of the dangers of the attention we can pay each other is wellContinue reading

Netochka Nezvanova (1849) One of the marvels of great fiction is its ability to embrace the complexity of experience and at the same time to shape it into a meaningful unity.  Part One of Dostoevsky’s Netochka Nezvanova is a masterpiece of such complex unity.  It opens with Efimov, Netochka’s step-father.  Efimov is both focused andContinue reading

“White Nights” (1848) I often think of desire as a fundamental element of fiction.  In most stories, a character wants something, but an obstacle hinders fulfillment.  The vast majority of stories operate this way. But there’s a snag to this sort of storytelling.  It just doesn’t square with my experience.  To want something wholly, withContinue reading

A Christmas Tree and a Wedding (1848) The basic outline of “A Christmas Tree and a Wedding” is quite conventional.  The affinity between a boy and girl is threatened by the girl’s grotesque suitor, whose social position enamors the girl’s parents.  I’ve heard variations on this theme many times.  But Dostoevsky’s version has some oddContinue reading

An Honest Thief (1848) If I’m going to write fiction, I must be curious about people.  That’s vital.  But if one of these people, say a roofer come to fix my leaking chimney, actually knocks on my door, two inner voices can drown out my ears of curiosity. The first voice calls curiosity unnecessary.  “YourContinue reading

Another Man’s Wife, or the Husband Under the Bed (1848) In Herman Melville’s The Confidence-Man, the narrator claims that the best readers look for “more reality, than real life itself can show.”  An actor’s body is more expressive than a candid person’s because the actor must reveal what a person experiences but cannot express.  FictionContinue reading

A Weak Heart (1848) The narrative style of “A Weak Heart” is full of gaps and misdirection.  Vasya and Arkady are both infatuated with Lizanka, yet at no point do either speak of jealousy.  Who ever heard of a love triangle without jealousy?  After Vasya and Arkady have a long and passionate discussion about Vasya’sContinue reading

Polzunkov (1848) “Polzunkov” is about a man who’s unable resist the impulse to humiliate himself.  I can’t read this story without a feeling a searing “why?”  The narrator insists that Polzunkov is kind and noble, yet his life is a grotesque parody of Christ’s call to turn the other cheek.  “They strike you on theContinue reading

The Landlady (1847) One of the most difficult decisions one makes when composing fiction is how to frame the point of view.  In The Landlady, Dostoevsky tackles this issue in interesting ways.  He largely relies on the perspective of his protagonist, Ordynov.  In the early pages, the narrator describes Ordynov’s childhood: “Every one was alwaysContinue reading