At the country estate of Stepanchikovo, the household has fallen completely under the sway of the despotic charlatan and humbug Foma Fomich Opiskin, one of the most notorious creations in Russian literature. The owner of the estate, Colonel Rostanev, a meek, soft-hearted giant of a man, is cruelly dominated by his parasitic houseguest - and now Opiskin has plans to marry his host off to an elderly widow. With deftly controlled suspense, amid a teeming variety of wildly eccentric minor characters, the novel builds up to a confrontation between these two. Will Rostanev give way to Opiskin's bullying and sacrifice the love of his life? Or will his sense of honour finally push him to resist the tyrant's demands?Full of pace, effervescence and absurd characters, this short comic novel represents a rare instance of Dostoyevsky's antic side. Written in the year of his return from exile, it marks the beginning of his artistic maturity. Chekhovian in its bittersweet evocation of a household at war with itself, Dickensian in its comic proliferation of characters, this novel is Dostoyevsky's portrait of a Russia on the verge of upheaval and transformation.



Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) trained as an engineer and began his literary career with translations. As punishment for engaging in progressive political discussion, he was subjected to a mock execution and sent into exile in Siberia in his twenties. Subsequently he worked exclusively as a writer, touring Europe and publishing novels and journalism. Addicted to gambling, he was often near starvation. His second, very happy marriage to typist Anna Snitkina helped to stabilize his manner of living, and with her practical assistance he went on to write several masterpieces of psychological and existential fiction. Novels such as Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov and Notes from Underground have earned him a lasting reputation as one of the dominant figures of world literature.