Did Dostoevsky Have an Unrealized Intention Known as “The Usurer”?

Journal Title: Неизвестный Достоевский - Year 2017, Vol 4, Issue 3

Abstract

Abstract The article concerns the attribution of one essay from Dostoevsky’s notebook going back to 1866−1867 (The Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts. Fund 212.1.5. P. 10). Both in the 1st and in the 2d editions of the scholarly Complete Works this essay was considered to be a preparatory material for an unrealized intention of the beginning of 1866 entitled by the publishers “The Usurer” (“Rostovschik”). The article provides us with alternative researches permitting to date the essay to Autumn 1867 and offers a supposition of belonging of the records on this page to the preparatory materials for the novel “The Idiot” going back to Autumn 1867. The arguments of the publishers of the Complete Works are exposed to critical estimation. The position of the essay among surrounding writings in the notebook is studied as well as its contents reechoing with the draft materials of the “Idiot”. The problem of prototypes is also envisaged (in terms of designation of crosscutting motifs). The specificity of the essay impedes its attribution.

Authors and Affiliations

Boris Tikhomirov

Keywords

Related Articles

Notes on the Сorrespondence between Fyodor Dostoevsky and Vladimir Meshchersky

This publication presents a historical, cultural and real commentary on the letters of F. M. Dostoevsky and V. P. Meshchersky, their chronological attribution, reveals their historical and literary value in Russian journ...

F. M. Dostoevsky, V. P. Meshchersky. Correspondence (1872–1880).

Correspondence between F. M. Dostoevsky and V. P. Meshchersky covers the period of nine years from 1872 till 1880. Their letters contain valuable biographical and literary information on the history of Russian literature...

An Ordeal by “Practical Philisophy” or Two Teachers of Elena Stakenschneider

Based on the diaries, memoirs and letters of E. A. Stakenschneider we have revealed a kind of an ideologic novel with the plot concerning spiritual evolution of E. A. Stakenschneider from the revolutionary radicalism of...

In Search of the Grave of Mikhail Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

Mikhail M. Dostoevsky died in the summer cottage in Pavlovsk on July 10th 1864 and was buried on the 13th of July at a local burying ground. All the attempts to find the tomb of the famous man of the pen and brother of t...

From the Speeches of the Participants of a Press Conference Conference dedicated to the restoration of the gravestone on the tomb of F.M. Dostoevsky’s mother held on March 9, 2017 in the Dostoevsky Apartment Museum in Moscow

From the Speeches of the Participants of a Press Conference Conference dedicated to the restoration of the gravestone on the tomb of F.M. Dostoevsky’s mother held on March 9, 2017 in the Dostoevsky Apartment Museum in Mo...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP454977
  • DOI 10.15393/j10.art.2017.3241
  • Views 155
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

Boris Tikhomirov (2017). Did Dostoevsky Have an Unrealized Intention Known as “The Usurer”?. Неизвестный Достоевский, 4(3), 3-15. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-454977