Soon he found his interest in Dostoevsky increasing and his interest in Existentialism diminishing.

But realizing his own inadequacy in matters relating to Russian social and cultural history, Frank began to investigate the subject. Twenty years ago he was invited to give a series of lectures at Princeton on 'Existential Themes in Modern Literature.' As background material he decided to use Dostoevsky's Notes from Undreground because it seemed a precursor to the themes and mood found in French Existentialism. How Frank came to undertake this mammoth project - the present volume is the first of a projected four - reveals much about the nature of his study. Moreover, it provides the American reader with a thorough, helpful introduction to the complex, often stormy, cultural and social history of the time. JOSEPH FRANK's masterful study seems destined to replace all earlier biographies of Dostoevsky, because it treats him first as a novelist, not as a member of the Russian intelligentsia who happened to write novels, and because it is both thorough in its research and objective in its findings. Cardaci teaches comparative literature at Georgetown University.

The book also includes Frank's favorite review of his Dostoevsky biography, 'Joseph Frank's Dostoevsky' by David Foster Wallace, originally published in the Village Voice.By Paul F.

Bringing Joseph Frank’s unmatched knowledge and understanding of Dostoevsky's life and writings to a new generation of readers, this remarkable book will appeal to anyone seeking to understand Dostoevsky and his times. Written in a conversational style that combines literary analysis and cultural history, Lectures on Dostoevsky places the novels and their key characters and scenes in a rich context. Presented here for the first time, these illuminating lectures begin with an introduction to Dostoevsky's life and literary influences and go on to explore the breadth of his career-from Poor Folk, The Double, and The House of the Dead to Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov. His never-before-published Stanford lectures on the Russian novelist's major works provide an unparalleled and accessible introduction to some of literature's greatest masterpieces. Joseph Frank (1918–2013) was perhaps the most important Dostoevsky biographer, scholar, and critic of his time. From the author of the definitive biography of Fyodor Dostoevsky, never-before-published lectures that provide an accessible introduction to the Russian writer's major works

Joseph frank's dostoevsky