The House of the Dead
The House of the Dead (Russian: Записки из Мёртвого дома, Zapiski iz Myortvovo doma) is a semi-autobiographical novel published in 1860–2 in the journal Vremya by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, which portrays the life of convicts in a Siberian prison camp. The novel has also been published under the titles Memoirs from the House of The Dead, Notes from the Dead House (or Notes from a Dead House), and Notes from the House of the Dead. The book is, essentially, a disguised memoir; a loosely-knit collection of facts, events and philosophical discussion organised by "theme" rather than as a continuous story. Dostoevsky himself spent four years in exile in such a prison following his conviction for involvement in the Petrashevsky Circle. This experience allowed him to describe with great authenticity the conditions of prison life and the characters of the convicts.
Stats for nerds
7recommend
17mentions
14people
2013–2026years
53% recommend47% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I actually agree with Collison - although I have to admit I never thought about Brothers K so deeply. It never engendered that response from me.
The Idiot is my favorite Dostoyevsky novel. The Prince's good nature were also his flaws. This leads to so many profound scenes and scenarios. And it gives greater texture to Christian philosophy and the image of Christ than any other analysis I have ever read.
"The House of the Dead" changed the way I looked at prisons, "Crime and Punishment" about ego and justice, "Notes From Underground" about the lone genius - I can't say that Brothers K. gave me any of this.
- House of the Dead and The Gambler are both highly underrated in my opinion.
- >House of the Dead was Tolstoy's favorite and it it was on his bedside table when he died.
Very interesting, never heard that, but I'm not surprised! Incredibly raw depiction of human nature. Much less verbiage than his other works but very profound.
>Also fabulous is The Double, which was the second thing he published, and still one of his best.
Flabbergasted I haven't read this yet. Got a copy on they way, thanks for the heads up!
- No, not binary. I love the House of the Dead and the Gambler, but Brothers is a soap opera with a few great chapters and passages hiding inside. They don't make the overall experience worth it though.
- I suggest House of the Dead. His life transformed immensely during the course of that book, to put it simply.
- I can't give just one, but here are a few that had a strong influence on me: "12 Rules for Life" by Jordan Peterson, "Why Switzerland?" Jonathan Steinberg, "Little Book of Common Sense Investing" by John C. Bogle, "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" by Butron Malkiel, "Liberalismus" by Ludwig von Mises, "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius, "A Treatise of Human Nature" by David Hume, "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman, "The Law" by Frédéric Bastiat, "Autobiography" by Benjamin Franklin, "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine, "Gespräche mit Goethe" by Johann Peter Eckermann, "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau, "The Old Regime and the Revolution" Alexis de Tocqueville, "On Liberty" by John Stuart Mill, "A Treatise on Political Economy" by Jean-Baptiste Say, "The Man Versus the State" by Herbert Spencer, "The Revolt of the Masses" by José Ortega y Gasset, "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy" by Joseph Alois Schumpeter, "The Logic of Scientific Discovery" by Karl Popper, "The Machinery of Freedom" by David Friedman, "On Power" Bertrand de Jouvenel, "1984" by George Orwell, "The State" by Anthony de Jasay, "Sketched With the Quill" by Andrzej Bobkowski, "My Correct Views on Everything" by Leszek Kolakowski, "The Captive Mind" Czesław Miłosz, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, "The House of the Dead" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, "Conversations with an Executioner" by Kazimierz Moczarski, "Diary 1954" by Leopold Tyrmand, "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov, "A World Apart: A Memoir of the Gulag" by Gustaw Herling-Grudziński
