Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Los Hermanos Karamazov. FIODOR DOSTOYEVSKI Rusia 1821 - 1881. Esta obra fue traducida al Espa ol por el Escritor Rafael Cansinos Assens en el a o 1930.

La presente edici n comprende dos contundentes y conmovedores relatos del escritor ruso Fi dor Dostoyevski (1821-1881). Ambos relatos, "El rbol de Navidad y una boda" y "El Ni o de la manita", ambientados en la poca de navidad, son una clara muestra de la iron a, el sarcasmo con la que Dostoyevski pretende dibujar las realidad de las injusticias sociales y humanas. En estas dos obras, Dostoyevski presenta a los ni os como presas d ciles y completamente vulnerables ante la vida y a sus m s grandes injusticias. Fueron muchas p ginas las que Dostoyevski dedic a esta problem tica. En su caso, "El ni o con la manita", primer relato de esta obra, sintetiza el des-tino desgarrador de los peque os infantes que son vagabundos, hu rfanos o ladronzuelos que, no conociendo otro mundo, adquieren su destino como parte de su forma de vida, aquella que reciben de sus desalmados e irresponsables padres o de quienes tutelen su existencia. Ni os llevados a la miseria, iniciados en la pr ctica de ser limosneros en las fr as calles de las grandes ciudades y, quienes sobrevivan a esta incierta condici n, han de terminar sus vidas imitando la holgazaner a de sus padres, y cuando no, congelados en alg n rinc n de una ciudad indiferente.

Fi dor M. Dostoyevski (1821-1881), es considerado como uno de los principales escritores de la Rusia Zarista. En su extensa y profunda obra literaria es una constante la exploraci n por la psicolog a humana en el complejo contexto pol tico, social y espiritual de la sociedad rusa del siglo XIX. "El doble," novela que aqu se presenta, expresa -sobre una trama cuidadosamente intencional y sobre un hecho seleccionado con detalle- la vida com n y corriente de Y kov Petr vich Goliadkin, un funcionario del Estado ruso y quien tras ser rechazado en una comida que ofrecer a su jefe por el cumplea os de su hija, su personalidad se fractura en dos y enfrenta por ello una despiadada lucha interna que lo enfrenta con la dura y fr a realidad y sus ideas y deseos, reflejados en un "super" Goliadkin. As entonces, estamos ante una trama con un trasfondo psicol gico que ha de develar en Goliadkin un trastorno disociativo de su identidad y/o quiz s de esquizofrenia... y aunque entre uno y otro trastorno la literatura cient fica no es muy clara, lo cierto es que Goldiadkin, un modesto empleado asediado por una aguda man a persecutoria, asiste al desdoblamiento de su personalidad y con ello, Dostoyevski a trav s de la voz nica de su personaje principal, consigue retratar el fluir ca tico y an rquico de la conciencia humana.

The Gambler is a short novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky about a young tutor in the employment of a formerly wealthy Russian general. The novella reflects Dostoyevsky's own addiction to roulette, which was in more ways than one the inspiration for the book: Dostoyevsky completed the novella under a strict deadline to pay off gambling debts. The Gambler treated a subject Fyodor Dostoevsky himself was familiar with-gambling. Fyodor Dostoevsky gambled for the first time at the gaming tables at Wiesbaden in 1863. From that time till 1871, when his passion for gambling subsided, he played at Baden-Baden, Homburg, and Saxon-les-Bains frequently, often beginning by winning a small amount of money and losing far more in the end. He wrote to his brother Mikhail on 8 September: "And I believed in my system ... within a quarter of an hour I won 600 francs. This whetted my appetite. Suddenly I started to lose, couldn't control myself and lost everything. After that I ... took my last money, and went to play ... I was carried away by this unusual good fortune and I risked all 35 napoleons and lost them all. I had 6 napoleons d'or left to pay the landlady and for the journey. In Geneva I pawned my watch." Fyodor Dostoevsky then agreed to a hazardous contract with F. T. Stellovsky that if he did not deliver a novel of 12 or more signatures by 1 November 1866, Stellovsky would acquire the right to publish Dostoevsky's works for nine years without any compensation to the writer. He noted down parts of his story, then dictated them to one of the first stenographers in Russia and his wife-to-be, young Anna Grigorevna, who transcribed them and copied it neatly out for him. With her help, he was able to finish the book in time. The first-person narrative is told from the point of view of Alexei Ivanovich, a tutor working for a Russian family living in a suite at a German hotel. The patriarch of the family, The General, is indebted to the Frenchman de Griers and has mortgaged his property in Russia to pay only a small amount of his debt. Upon learning of the illness of his wealthy aunt, "Grandmother", he sends streams of telegrams to Moscow and awaits the news of her demise. His expected inheritance will pay his debts and gain Mademoiselle Blanche de Cominges's hand in marriage. Alexei is hopelessly in love with Polina, the General's stepdaughter. She asks him to go to the town's casino and place a bet for her. After hesitations, he succumbs and ends up winning at the roulette table. He returns to her the winnings but she will not tell him the reason she needs money. She only laughs in his face (as she does when he professes his love) and treats him with cold indifference, if not downright malice. He only learns the details of the General's and Polina's financial state later in the story through his long-time acquaintance, Mr. Astley. Astley is a shy Englishman who seems to share Alexei's fondness of Polina. He comes from English nobility and has a good deal of money. One day while Polina and Alexei are on a walk he swears an oath of servitude to her. He tells her while on a walk on the Schlangenberg (a mountain in the German town) that all she had to do was give the word and he would gladly walk off the edge and plummet to his death. Thereafter, they see Baron and Baroness Wurmerhelm. Polina dares him to insult the aristocratic couple and he does so with little hesitation. This sets off a chain of events that details Mademoiselle Blanche's interest in the General and gets Alexei fired as tutor of the General's children. Shortly after this, Grandmother shows up and surprises the whole party of debtors and indebted. She tells them all that she knows all about the General's debt and why the Frenchman and woman are waiting around the suite day after day. She leaves the party of death-profiteers by saying that none of them are getting any of her money.