Writer’s Diary Volume 2, A 1877-1881

This is the second volume of the complete collection of writings that has been called Dostoevsky's boldest experiment with literary form; it is a uniquely encyclopedic forum of fictional and nonfictional genres. The Diary's radical format was matched by the extreme range of its contents. In a single frame it incorporated an astonishing variety of material: short stories; humorous sketches; reports on sensational crimes; historical predictions; portraits of famous people; autobiographical pieces; and plans for stories, some of which were never written while others appeared in the Diary itself.

"An essential document for understanding this greatly flawed, greatly gifted master." --American Scholar

"Illuminates an entire stretch of Russian cultural history, and is indispensable on this score alone." --Joseph Frank, London Review of Books