The house of the dead - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

All Dostoyevsky’s great novels owe something to this early book, the writing of which transformed Dostoyevsky from a largely experimental novelist with romantic leanings into a realist. The House of the Dead is therefore essential reading for those seeking to understand Dostoyevsky’s methods in analysing situation, character and motive. In this book Dostoyevsky builds upon his experiences as a political prisoner in Siberia. He looks at a life bounded by grievous restrictions, which yet transcends them; the reader is left with the certainty that the human heart and the quality of a man’s soul can rise above the misery of endured humiliation.