DOSTOYEVSKY

Fyodor Mihailovich Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) is considered by many to be the greatest novelist of all time. Gide considered him so and Freud felt that he was second only to Shakespeare in all of literature.

He was, however, educated to be a military engineer as his family, an insecure Russian middle-class family, felt that would be best. However, by the time he finished his training in St. Petersberg, he had already decided to be a writer and in 1845 finished his first story.

By 1849 he was arrested and sentence to four years at hard labor in Siberia because of his involvement in a liberal group. His prison sentence over, he was then required to serve time in the army before finally being allowed to return to St. Petersberg. His years in prison deepened his understanding of human nature and led to the publication of The House of the Dead which is largely an autobiographical novel about his prison experiences.

Most importantly, through his prison experience he learned how life can crush a person at the same time that it regenerates them spiritually.

His great masterpiece Crime and Punishment was published in 1866 and was a major success and remains, to this day, widely read because it provides insights into how a person thinks and behaves. In 1869 he completed The Idiot. At this point in his life he was ill, his first child was born and died, and he was suffering from financial problems. More than anyone, it was his wife that kept him going. She had married a man almost twice her age who was sick, nervous, and irritable, but, her deep commitment and devotion pulled them through. Eventually his finances improved thanks, in large measure, to his wife's taking over the publication of his works and managing the business profitably.

In 1880 he completed another masterpiece, The Brothers Karamazov, but shortly thereafter, on January 28, 1881 he died.

LESSONS:

1. Follow your dreams. If Dostoyevsky had followed his family's wishes, he most likely would have had a less than noteworthy life as an engineer and we would have all been poorer by not having the experience of reading his great novels. The tricky part of following your dreams is to make sure that they are dreams worth following.

2. Learn from hardship. If Dostoyevsky had not gone to prison AND used that experience positively, then his novels would not have been as rich. Perhaps more importantly, if he had not used the experience to learn, he most likely would not have survived the harsh environment of prison life. We have learned over the years that those prisoners that use the experience to learn, tend to thrive, as compared to those who do not.

3. Select cautiously those you decide to share your life with. If Dostoyevsky had, during his final years, a wife less devoted, less capable, he most likely would have been a less healthy, less happy, and less successful person. Of all the choices you make in life, few, if any, will have a greater impact upon you than that of mate selection. And, when it comes to mate selection, we need to pay attention to internal qualities far more than external qualities---it is character that counts, despite all the media driven attitudes to the contrary.