The Assistant and Co-Author of Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Assistant and Co-Author of Fyodor Dostoevsky

Summary/Abstract: The paper presents the results of a comprehensive study on Anna Dostoevskaja’s role in the creative process of Fyodor Dostoevsky. She was not only the wife of the great writer but a professional shorthand writer and a copyist as well. At the time of writing his novel The Gambler, Dostoevsky and his assistant worked out a model of creativity in which priority was given to stenographic writing that could trace and fix the writer’s exciting ideas. During the subsequent work on his literary writings including e.g. The Great Pentateuch, this model of the creative process remained unaltered. Dostoevsky’s wife was his Muse, co-thinker, interlocutor, the first listener and the first critic of his creations, and the co-author of burlesque verses. Her impressions, stories, and their private conversations were used by Dostoevsky in his literary works. Several years of joint creative work with the brilliant writer developed in his assistant literary skills thanks to which she wrote masterful memoirs that obtained worldwide recognition. Dostoevsky appreciated his wife’s contribution to his literary activity thereby dedicating his greatest novel The Brothers Karamazov to her.

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