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Fyodor Dostoevsky - He has been called the world's greatest author. He spent four years in Siberian prison exile because of association in the 1840's with the Petrashevsky Circle, a discussion society of utopian socialists. He depicted his experiences in "Memoirs from the House of the Dead", a short novel.* But there were so many novels, each deserving particular praise. His characters were intricately psychological, beginning a new realm of possibilites for the novel. He explored the questions that man has wrangled with for ages, such as religion, man's true nature, government and revolution, the capabilites of mankind, crime, retribution, purity, forgiveness, and the philosophy of Neitzche (which was affecting the intellectual society of his time period). His thoughts provoked not only the Tsar (who exiled him to Siberia), but the generations that were to come. At times his writing can be frighteningly prophetic...and I won't tell you any more! Read ALL his works!
*(This information was found in a publisher's note,following Solzhenitsyn's "Letter to the Congress of Soviet Writers", nestled in a copy of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Bantam Books.)
