The House of the Dead
Written by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Narrated by Nicholas Boulton
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Completed six years after Dostoyevsky's own term as a convict, The House of the Dead is a semi-autobiographical account of life in a Siberian prison camp, and the physical and mental effects it has on those who are sentenced to inhabit it.
Alexandr Petrovitch Goryanchikov, a gentleman of the noble class, has been condemned to 10 years of hard labor for murdering his wife. He is little prepared for the cruel conditions and punishing temperatures, and struggles to integrate with the other prisoners, who claw for their sanity. Fettered, hungry and isolated, Alexandr Petrovitch must find faith and hope if he is to make his way out alive, and resurrect himself from the "dead house".
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky was born in Moscow in 1821. Between 1838 and 1843 he studied at the St Petersburg Engineering Academy. His first work of fiction was the epistolary novel Poor Folk (1846), which met with a generally favourable response. However, his immediately subsequent works were less enthusiastically received. In 1849 Dostoevsky was arrested as a member of the socialist Petrashevsky circle, and subjected to a mock execution. He suffered four years in a Siberian penal settlement and then another four years of enforced military service. He returned to writing in the late 1850s and travelled abroad in the 1860s. It was during the last twenty years of his life that he wrote the iconic works, such as Notes from the Underground (1864), Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1868) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880), which were to form the basis of his formidable reputation. He died in 1881.
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Reviews for The House of the Dead
75 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The genius of Dostoevsky clearly shines in this book. Wonderful book!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A great book. Make's you really think how much potential we as a society have wasted. And also how not all people in a prison are bad. In my opinion this wasn't the house of the death but instead this was a family of men. Cast away cause the society rejects them. A family, nothing less.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The writing and story was impeccable well worth a read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A wonderful read; the hospital and theater passages are just out of this world ??
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I’ve read most of Dostoevsky’s works. I wouldn’t say this is his best or most interesting or innovative. However, it’s observations of human behavior and psychology are astute and ring absolutely true.
The text here is tighter and more focused, less mawkish and religious. Very much worth the read.
I think there are some potential insights here on the specific pathologies of the culture of Russia and it’s former colonies/dominions. The contradictory reverence and extreme cruelty towards women and animals. The deep intractability of class differences and feeling. The hypocrisy of religious reverence and feeling. The ironic ubiquity and acceptance of diversity.
I’m sure it would have been censored even if Dostoevsky had the bravery to mention it, but the assiduous lack of any acknowledgement of same-sex male sexual or romantic relationships is stark and obviously a lie. Also hard to believe rape wasn’t a common occurrence in a situation with so much abuse. So what I’m saying is this is still a consummately 19th century book. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wow.. just wow... an experience that will stay with me for the rest of my days and inspired me to start writing. 10/10
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wonderfully read, beautiful book. It's taken me too long to read Dostoyevsky and am very glad for this stunning introduction.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What a beautiful and profound writing.
The book is a collection of all the stories of the inmates who Fyodor acquainted when he was a prisoner in Síria for the 6yrs of his life.
You see the sadness, the anxious, the angriness, the desesperation of them. The dead, the injustice, the hope and the sadness and some of them just simply gave up.
The daily basic of the prison life, and how he made friends and still to his surprise that he was still not included within the group of the criminals.
i absolutely loved it but as it‘s a quite a long and can be a pretty despressed book, i had to switch many times to other easier readings just to have a lighter feel.
i strongly recommend this. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The author describes prison life so well , the reader can visualize and live the experience. Satisfies ones morbid curiosity of what prison life is like, with the safety of not having to be there in reality. Makes you feel grateful to not be in prison. Good story telling. I read this book twice. The 2nd time it seemed familiar but I kept reading until I was sure I had already read it before.