Understanding Dostoyevsky

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32661, 17 July 1971, Page 10

Understanding Dostoyevsky

Dostoyevsky. An examination of the major novels. By Richard Peace. Cambridge University Press. 311 pp. Notes and Index.

Few readers of Dostoyevsky would deny that he is one of the most difficult of all Russian writers and that some help in understanding his complex novels is desirable if not essential. Mr Peace has produced the ideal work to fulfil this need. As he indicates in his sub-title, he examines only the major novels, Dostoyevsky’s great four, "Crime and Punishment” “The Idiot” "The Devils” and "The Brothers Karamazov.”

Mr Peace spends virtually no time at all on biographical details of Dostoyevsky’s life, commenting on them only when they are relevant to an understanding of some passage or character in the novels. Indeed he presupposes on the part of the reader a knowledge of Dostoyevsky’s life and of the historical background of his time. He assumes also, justifiably, that the reader is intimate with the text of all four novels. This assumption allows him to plunge straight in at the deep end with intricate critical analysis of structure and theme without wasting time splashing in the shallows of plot. After a brief first chapter on the early writings and "Notes from Under-

ground” Mr Peace devotes ten long chapters each to each of the four novels exploring what seem to him the main themes of the hooks. His interpretations are not extreme and are always perceptive, illuminating and believable. He reinforces his points with copious extracts from the novels, newly translated for this work and his admiration for his subject shows clearly in his careful use of words and quotations. Throughout all four novels he notes the recurrent appearances of and references to the Russian religious sects and the nihilists, both of which have a tremendous almost obsessive influence on Dostoyevsky’s writing.

Most readers will feel that Mr Peace is at his best when he examines "The Brothers Karamozov” which he, like most critics, regards as the peak of Dostoyevsky’s achievement, a “great affirmation of life” arising paradoxically from the death of the author’s infant son. The four great novels of Dostoyevsky are, as Mr Peace emphasises first and foremost extremely readable.

Those who wish to understand them more deeply could scarcely do better than to use Mr Peace’s work as a guide to further thought and study. Well written, unpretentious and perceptive, it clearly springs from a great appreciation and detailed study of Dostoyevsky’s novels.