Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky: Adapted by Joseph Cowley

Publisher Marketing: Dostoevsky was the son of a doctor. His parents were hard-working, religious people but poor. His first work, "Poor Folk," was published by the poet Nekrassov, and he found himself an instant celebrity. A brilliant career seemed opened to him, but in 1849 he was arrested and condemned to death. A member of a group of young men who met to read Fourier and Proudhon, he was accused of "taking part in conversations against the censorship... and of knowing of the intention to use a printing press." After eight months' in jail, he was taken to the Semyonovsky Square to be shot. Suddenly the troops beat a tattoo; they were unbound, and informed that his Majesty had spared their lives. The sentence was commuted to hard labor -- four years of penal servitude in Siberia, where he began "Dead House," and some years in a disciplinary battalion. In 1864 he lost first wife and his brother Mihail. He was in terrible poverty, yet he took upon himself the payment of his brother's debts. Weighed down by debt, he wrote at heart-breaking speed, and is said never to have corrected his work. The later years of his life were much softened by the tenderness and devotion of his second wife. In June 1880 he made his famous speech at the unveiling of the monument to Pushkin in Moscow and was received with demonstrations of love and honor. A few months later he died. He was followed to the grave by a vast multitude of mourners. He is still probably the most widely read writer in Russia. In the words of a Russian critic, "He was one of ourselves, a man of our blood and our bone, but one who has suffered and has seen so much more deeply than we have his insight impresses us as wisdom... that wisdom of the heart which we seek that we may learn from it how to live." Contributor Bio:  Cowley, Joseph Henry James was born in the United States, in New York City, on April 15, 1843 and is considered an American writer, though he spent most of his life in England and, a year before his death in London on February 28, 1916, became a British citizen. He is regarded as one of the key literary figures of the 19th century, writing mainly narrative fiction. He influenced many other writers, most notably Edith Wharton. James was the son of Henry James, Sr., a well-known intellectual of his day, and the brother of William James. Henry is known especially for the novels in which he portrays Americans encountering Europeans. His style of writing, often verbose and indirect, especially in his later years, can make him difficult to read. Often, too, he writes from the point of view of the characters within a tale, exploring issues related to consciousness and perception. James contributed significantly to literary criticism, especially in his later years when his works were republished with extensive introductions by James. He insisted that writers be allowed the greatest freedom in their writing, and that narrative fiction be true to life, giving readers a view of life that is recognizable. He felt that the only way to judge whether a novel is good or bad is by whether the author is good or bad. His imaginative use of point of view, interior monologue, and narrators who were not necessarily reliable, brought depth and interest to his fiction. The Aspern Papers is one of his most notable short novels, along with The Turn of the Screw. In addition to fiction he published articles, books of travel, autobiography, biography, criticism, and plays. Among his masterpieces are Daisy Miller (1879), The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Bostonians (1886), What Maisie Knew (1897), The Wings of the Dove (1902), and The Golden Bpwl (1916), available in this series, Classics Condensed by Cowley. THE ASPERN PAPERS THE ASPERN PAPERS BY MR. HENRY JAMES ADAPTED BY MR. JOSEPH COWLEY by Mr. Henry James adapted