Ignat Avsey

Fyodor Dostoevsky

First published in 1859, the year of his return to St Petersberg from exile, this superb comic tale represents a side of the author insufficiently known to his English-speaking readers: his humour.

And Its Inhabitants: from the Notes of an Unknown

The Village of Stepanchikovo

Penguin Classics Introduction to The Village of Stepanchikovo by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Penguin Classics)

Humiliated and Insulted

Summoned to the country estate of his wealthy uncle Colonel Yegor Rostanev, the young student Sergey Aleksandrovich finds himself thrown into a startling bedlam. For as he soon sees, his meek and kind-hearted uncle is wholly dominated by a pretentious and despotic pseudo-intellectual named Opiskin, a charlatan who has ingratiated himself with Yegor’s mother and now holds the entire household under his thumb. Watching the absurd theatrics of this domestic tyrant over forty-eight explosive hours, Sergey grows increasingly furious - until at last, he feels compelled to act. A compelling comic exploration of petty tyranny, The Village of Stepanchikovo reveals a delight in life’s wild absurdities that rivals even Gogol’s. It also offers a fascinating insight into the genesis of the characters and situations of many of Dostoyevsky’s great later novels, including The Idiot, Devils and The Brothers Karamazov.

Ignat Avsey

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