Dostoievski, the son of a Moscow physician, was born in 1821 and died of consumption in 1881. For his connection with a revolutionary plot he was condemned to death in 1849, but on the scaffold his sentence was commuted to hard labor in Siberia. While his writings are not distinguished in form or style, the author’s intimate knowledge of the life he portrays and his wonderful power of analysis unite to create an impression of life that is all the more poignant because it is so scientifically accurate.
The degree of relationship between “The Thief” and Gogol’s “The Cloak” will be readily perceived.
“Crime and Punishment” is the only one of the few of his books translated into English that is at all well known to American readers.
THE THIEF
BY FEODOR DOSTOIEVSKI
Translated by Lizzie B. Gorin. Copyright, 1907,
by P. F. Collier & Son.
One morning, just as I was about to leave for my place of employment, Agrafena (my cook, laundress, and housekeeper all in one person) entered my room, and, to my great astonishment, started a conversation.
She was a quiet, simple-minded woman, who during the whole six years of her stay with me had never spoken more than two or three words daily, and that in reference to my dinner—at least, I had never heard her.