Dostoevsky's Secrets

When Fyodor Dostoevsky proclaims that he is a realist in a higher sense it is because the facts are irrelevant to his truth. And it is in this spirit that Apollonio approaches Dostoevsky's work reading through the facts-the text-of his canonical novels for the deeper truth that they distort mask and ultimately disclose. This sort of reading against the grain is Apollonio suggests precisely what these works with their emphasis on the hidden and the private and their narrative reliance on secrecy and slander demand.In each work Apollonio focuses on one character or theme caught in the compromising self-serving or distorting narrative lens. Who she asks really exploits whom in Poor Folk? Does White Nights ever escape the dream state? What is actually lost-and what is won-in The Gambler? Is Svidrigailov of such ill repute in Crime and Punishment in fact an exemplar of generosity and truth? Who in Demons is truly demonic? Here we see how Dostoevsky has crafted his novels to help us see these distorting filters and develop the critical skills to resist their unaesthetic effect. Apollonio's readings show how Dostoevsky's paradoxes counter and usurp our comfortable assumptions about the way the world is and offer access to a deeper immanent essence. His works gain power when we read beyond the primitive logic of external appearances and recognize the deeper life of the text.