Dostoyevsky

Dostoyevsky's was a life rich in paradoxes, sudden reversals, and smoldering obsessions. His first published work was enthusiastically hailed and then reviled by Russia's greatest critic, Belinsky; condemned to death by firing squad for subversive activities against the tyrant Nicholas II, he spent ten years in Siberian prison and exile instead; he swung from early socialism and atheism to reactionary right0wing attitudes, extreme patriotism, and religious fanaticim; he was constantly in debt and saw gambling as the only way out; in the young stenographer, half his age, o whom he dictated many of his works in frantic attempts to meet deadline after deadline, he found a devoted wife; he died celebrated and worshipped as a national seer.