톨스토이와 함께 19세기 러시아 문학을 대표하는 세계적인 대문호이다. 처녀작 『가난한 사람들』을 발표하면서 이름이 알려졌으며, 페트라셰프스키 사건에 연루되어 사형 선고를 받았으나 황제의 특사로 죽음을 면하는 대신 시베리아 옴스크 감옥에 유배되기도 했다. 주요 작품으로는 『죄와 벌』『학대받는 사람들』『백치』『미성년』『악령』『네트치카 네즈바노바』등이 있다.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881), one of nineteenth-century Russia’s greatest novelists, spent four years in a convict prison in Siberia, after which he was obliged to enlist in the army. In later years his penchant for gambling sent him deeply into debt. Most of his important works were written after 1864, including Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov, all available from Penguin Classics.

David McDuff was educated at the University of Edinburgh and has translated a number of works for Penguin Classics, including Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov.