Lectures on Dostoevsky - by Joseph Frank (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This book collects twelve classroom lectures on seven major works by Dostoevsky--Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, Notes from Underground, and three others--by Joseph Frank, the author of the definitive five-volume biography of Dostoevsky published by Princeton University Press. Frank's widow, Marguerite Frank, has worked with a Russian translator and former student of Frank's, Marina Brodskya, to compile the lectures--some of which Frank had written out in their entirety, others for which he left extensive notes. The book will contain a preface, introduction, seven chapters (each containing one or two lectures on a major work), and lists of further reading and stage and screen adaptations of Dostoevsky's works. Each lecture is about 4,000 words and is written in a conversational style that is accessible for undergraduates but also demonstrates Frank's unparalleled knowledge of the Russian author and his world, providing wide-ranging literary and historical context. The editors include notes to explain references and allusions. The book also will include some images of Joseph Frank, Dostoevsky, a couple of artworks discussed in the lectures, and a sample of Frank's handwritten lecture notes"--

Book Synopsis

From the author of the definitive biography of Fyodor Dostoevsky, never-before-published lectures that provide an accessible introduction to the Russian writer's major works

Joseph Frank (1918-2013) was perhaps the most important Dostoevsky biographer, scholar, and critic of his time. His never-before-published Stanford lectures on the Russian novelist's major works provide an unparalleled and accessible introduction to some of literature's greatest masterpieces. Presented here for the first time, these illuminating lectures begin with an introduction to Dostoevsky's life and literary influences and go on to explore the breadth of his career--from Poor Folk, The Double, and The House of the Dead to Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov. Written in a conversational style that combines literary analysis and cultural history, Lectures on Dostoevsky places the novels and their key characters and scenes in a rich context. Bringing Joseph Frank's unmatched knowledge and understanding of Dostoevsky's life and writings to a new generation of readers, this remarkable book will appeal to anyone seeking to understand Dostoevsky and his times.

The book also includes Frank's favorite review of his Dostoevsky biography, "Joseph Frank's Dostoevsky" by David Foster Wallace, originally published in the Village Voice.

Review Quotes

"In chapters on Poor Folk, The Double, The House of the Dead, Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov, Frank distills his multivolume biography's provocative and superbly argued readings. . . . The best approach, in Frank's view, is first to locate Dostoevsky's fiction and ideas within his immediate concerns, and only then proceed, from the ground up rather than from generalities down, to consider their broader implications. These lectures do that especially well."---Gary Saul Morson, New York Review of Books

"The lectures are full of novel, authoritatively argued insights. Frank makes new connections and clears up previous misunderstandings"---Christina Karakepeli, Modern Languages Review

About the Author

Joseph Frank was professor emeritus of Slavic and comparative literature at Stanford and Princeton. The five volumes of his Dostoevsky biography won a National Book Critics Circle Award, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, two James Russell Lowell Prizes, and two Christian Gauss Awards, and have been translated into numerous languages. Marina Brodskaya is a translator who worked with Joseph Frank while teaching at Stanford. Her translations include Five Plays by Chekhov. Marguerite Frank, a published mathematician who holds a PhD from Harvard, was married to Joseph Frank from 1953 until his death. Robin Feuer Miller is the Edytha Macy Gross Professor of Humanities and professor of Russian and comparative literature at Brandeis University.