Joseph Cowley

Dostoevsky was the son of a doctor. His parents were hard-working, religious people but poor. His first work, "Poor Folk," was published by the poet Nekrassov, and he found himself an instant celebrity. A brilliant career seemed opened to him, but in 1849 he was arrested and condemned to death. A member of a group of young men who met to read Fourier and Proudhon, he was accused of "taking part in conversations against the censorship... and of knowing of the intention to use a printing press." After eight months' in jail, he was taken to the Semyonovsky Square to be shot. Suddenly the troops beat a tattoo; they were unbound, and informed that his Majesty had spared their lives. The sentence was commuted to hard labor -- four years of penal servitude in Siberia, where he began "Dead House," and some years in a disciplinary battalion. In 1864 he lost first wife and his brother Mihail. He was in terrible poverty, yet he took upon himself the payment of his brother's debts. Weighed down by debt, he wrote at heart-breaking speed, and is said never to have corrected his work. The later years of his life were much softened by the tenderness and devotion of his second wife. In June 1880 he made his famous speech at the unveiling of the monument to Pushkin in Moscow and was received with demonstrations of love and honor. A few months later he died. He was followed to the grave by a vast multitude of mourners. He is still probably the most widely read writer in Russia. In the words of a Russian critic, "He was one of ourselves, a man of our blood and our bone, but one who has suffered and has seen so much more deeply than we have his insight impresses us as wisdom... that wisdom of the heart which we seek that we may learn from it how to live."

Crime and Punishment

Constance Garnett

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky was the son of a doctor. His parents were hard-working, religious people, but poor. A brilliant career seemed open, but in 1849 he was arrested and condemned to death. A member of a group of young men who met to read Fourier and Proudhon, he was accused of “taking part in conversations against the censorship … and of knowing of the intention to use a printing press.” After eight months in jail, he was taken to be shot. Suddenly the prisoners were informed that His Majesty had spared their lives. His sentence was commuted to hard labor: four years of penal servitude in Siberia and some years in a disciplinary battalion. In 1864 Dostoevsky lost his first wife and his brother. Though in terrible poverty, he paid his brother’s debts. The author wrote at tremendous speed and is said to never have corrected his work, which is evident in many books, especially Crime and Punishment. In June 1880 he made his famous speech at the unveiling of the monument to Pushkin in Moscow and was received with great honor. A few months later he died and a vast multitude of mourners came to the cemetery. He is still probably the most widely read writer in Russia. In the words of a Russian critic, “He was one of ourselves, a man of our blood and our bone, but one who has suffered.”

(Translated by Constance Garnett)

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Here is Joseph Cowley at his best: Once More With Feeling: the touching story of an old man seeking a lost love after his wife dies; The Chrysanthemum Garden: a sensitive and moving novel about finding love later in life; Another Great Day: a novella about a man on a "lost weekend" at the moment his life is coming unraveled; He Says, She Says: the story of an unemployed writer and beautiful married woman who meet in Alcoholics Anonymous and fall in love, and the lesson it teaches them; and The Stargazers, a wonderful play about the conflict between the astronomers, Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler, as they struggled to find the secret of the solar system.

An Anthology

The Best of Joseph Cowley

Lewis Carroll was the pen name used by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who was born in England on January 27, 1832, and died there on January 14, 1898. Though best known as an author today, during his life-time he was an Anglican deacon, mathematician, logician, and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, and the nonsense poems, "The Hunting of the Snark" and "Jabberwocky." Because his writing is noted for its word play, logic, and fantasy, it has a great appeal to adults. There are societies dedicated to the enjoyment and promotion of his works and the investigation of his life in many parts of the world, including the United Kingdom, Japan, the United States, and New Zealand

(Adapted by Joseph Cowley)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Leo Tolstoy was born on the family estate at Yasnaya Polyana, south of Moscow, in 1828. His parents were of the Russian nobility. They died when he was young, leaving him and his three brothers to be brought up by aunts. He began the study of law in 1844, but was a poor student and soon dropped out. In 1851, after running up heavy gambling debts, he joined the army in the Caucasus. It was about this time he began writing. Of his early work, perhaps the best known are the three novels of his autobiographical trilogy, Childhood (1852), Boyhood (1854), and Youth (1857). They portray his happy childhood and young manhood. Tolstoy married Sophia Behrens, 16 years his junior, in 1862. It was a marriage marked by sexual passion and emotion. Even so, their early married life was ostensibly happy and allowed Tolstoy much freedom to write. Tolstoy died in 1910, and today is considered one of the giants of Russian literature. His most famous works include the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina and novellas such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich and The Kreutzer Sonata.

The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born at Salem, Mass., on July 4th, 1804. He led a shy and rather somber life with little encouragement to write, yet not wholly uncongenial in view of his temperament. His life is reflected in his ""Twice-Told Tales"" and other short stories, the product of his first literary period. In these stories, his understanding of men and women was displayed with great subtlety. He was forty-six years old when ""The Scarlet Letter"" appeared. It is considered his best work, and is a good demonstration of his unique and imaginative mind. In 1850, the year ""The Scarlet Letter"" appeared, he began ""The House of the Seven Gables,"" a later romance or prose-tragedy of the Puritan-America as he knew it - missing art and the joy of life.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Adapted by Joseph Cowley}

Henry James was born in the United States, in New York City, on April 15, 1843 and is considered an American writer, though he spent most of his life in England and, a year before his death in London on February 28 1916, became a British citizen. He is regarded as one of the key literary figures of the 19th century, writing mainly narrative fiction. He influenced many other writers, most notably Edith Wharton. James was the son of Henry James, Sr., a well-known intellectual of his day, and the brother of the philosopher and psychologist William James. Henry is known especially for the novels in which he portrays Americans encountering Europe and Europeans. His style of writing, often verbose and indirect, especially in his later years, can make him difficult to read. Often, too, he often writes from the point of view of characters within a tale, exploring issues related to consciousness and perception. James contributed significantly to literary criticism, especially in his later years when his works were republished with extensive introductions by James. He insisted that writers be allowed the greatest freedom in their writing, and that narrative fiction be true to life, giving readers a view of life that is recognizable. He felt that the only way to judge whether a novel or story is good or bad is by whether the author is good or bad. His imaginative use of point of view, interior monologue, and narrators who were not necessarily reliable, brought depth and interest to his fiction. The Golden Bowl (1904), his most difficult book, was influenced by his play-writing experience, the story told mostly through dialogue. James was a prolific writer. In addition to fiction he published articles, books of travel, autobiography, biography, criticism, and plays. Among his masterpieces are Daisy Miller (1879, The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Bostonians (1886), What Maisie Knew (1897), The Wings of the Dove (1902), and The Ambassadors (1903). His best known novellas are Washington Square (1881), and The Turn of the Screw (1898).

Joseph Cowley

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