Dostoevsky: The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871-1881

Starred review from May 1, 2002
These two works add immensely to our understanding of Dostoevsky, though they have quite different purposes: Frank completes his monumental biography of Dostoevsky, while Scanlan examines the Russian writer's philosophical thought. Scanlan (emeritus, philosophy, Ohio State Univ.) argues that while much has been said about Dostoevsky as a writer, he has rarely been treated as a philosopher. Yet through his writings, he explored a variety of philosophical issues, primarily concerning the nature of humankind. Scanlan studies Dostoevsky's nationalism, opposition to rational egotism, and beliefs about our eternal souls, moral agency, and aesthetic needs. Of course, Dostoevsky's philosophy was framed within a Christian worldview, and Scanlan does excellent work discussing Dostoevsky's ideas in terms of his religious faith. Readers wanting to learn more about the thought of one of Russia's great writers will find this work essential.

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2002
Like the life it chronicles, Frank's magisterial biography of Dostoevsky concludes in the radiance of rare achievement. In this fifth and final volume, Frank surpasses even the brilliance of the earlier volumes in probing the literary genius that rose to an unexpected zenith in his " Brothers Karamazov." Both in illuminating the historical context for this masterpiece and in celebrating its imaginative artistry, Frank amplifies Dostoevsky's singular contribution to world literature. No one understands better than Frank the torturous process through which Dostoevsky converted his personal observations into deathless characters--the impulsive sensualist, Dimitri; the cynical rationalist, Ivan; the self-sacrificing idealist, Alyosha. Frank likewise surpasses other commentators in capturing the defining moment in Russian culture when Dostoevsky triumphed over Turgenev with his famous Pushkin speech. But Frank also confronts the failures of Dostoevsky's final years: the legal missteps in editing " The Citizen; " the wooden plotting of " A Raw Youth; " the chauvinistic polemics of the " Diary of a Writer." And in narrating the author's personal life, Frank opens to the reader Dostoevsky's moments of deepest vulnerability: his rage against his wife, Anna, when a prank went awry; his grief when his three-year-old son unexpectedly died; his anguish when his rival, Tolstoy, apostatized from Christianity. The complexities in Frank's nuanced portrait well reflect a central motif of Dostoevsky's own fiction: the irreducible mystery of the human soul. A landmark biography, certain to win praise from scholars and Dostoevsky readers everywhere.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)