Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) was a Russian novelist whose work explores guilt, faith and the extremes of human psychology. Born in Moscow, the son of a doctor, he was arrested in 1849 for involvement in a radical discussion group, sentenced to death, reprieved at the last moment and sent to four years of hard labor in Siberia, an experience that reshaped his thinking. His major novels came afterward: Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Demons and The Brothers Karamazov, written in his final years. He suffered from epilepsy and a gambling addiction, and wrote much of his fiction under pressure of debt and deadlines.