Dostoevsky: What They Don't Teach You in School

Throughout his writing career Dostoevsky used the Russian folkloric image of Elijah the Prophet as a central symbol in his fiction, but this network of allusive imagery went unnoticed by scholars for over 150 years after the writer's death. This book traces some of the most salient Elijah imagery in Dostoevsky's major works, including Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, Stepanchikovo, The Landlady, The Eternal Husband and "Mr. Prokharchin". The Elijah leitmotif has been called the most significant discovery in the study of Dostoevsky. It will interest students writing term papers about Dostoevsky and ordinary admirers of Dostoevsky's fiction as well as scholars doing advanced research about the writer. If you are not familiar with the Elijah symbolism in Crime and Punishment, The Landlady and Stepanchikovo, then your understanding of Dostoevsky is far from complete.