Heart and Soul: Dickens and Dostoevsky

Abstract

ABSTRACT ‘Raskolnikoff himself, a typical Russian, a man of brains maddened by hunger and by the sight of others hungry, is the kind of character Dickens never attempted to portray; his motives, his reasonings, could not be comprehended by an Englishman of the lower middle class.’ (George Gissing, Charles Dickens, 1898) The present study documents both convergences and divergences in the works of Dickens and his admirer Dostoevsky; while many such comparisons have been made by earlier scholars, the field is a rich one and there is much relevant detail that has not been previously rehearsed. Both major and minor works are here elucidated to provide fresh perspectives on this endlessly explorable territory of comparative literary studies.