Dostoevsky: Reminiscences

In 1867 the 45-year-old Dostoevsky married the 20-year-old Anna Snitkina. He was already a well-respected author in Russia, had spent several years in Siberia for subversive political activities and there had entered into an unhappy marriage. After his return to Petersburg and the death of his first wife, he proposed marriage to several women but was politely turned down each time. Then Anna entered the scene. She came as a fledgling stenographer, helping D. to meet a deadline for one of his books. She admired him and this admiration seems to have been enough for him to propose marriage. She accepted though he was not necessarily a great catch. There were his ever more frequent epileptic fits, his disordered finances, his sponging relatives, his unreasonable jealousy. Only two months after his marriage, they had to escape his Russian creditors and there followed four years in strange European countries, the birth and death of children, the disasters of his gambling habits. But he had chosen wisely. Anna turned into an anchor in his complicated life. Not only did she write down his novels, she ordered his finances, protected him from his relatives, pawned her last belongings when necessary, raised--and buried--their children. Finally, she also enjoyed with him his increasing stature. Thirty years after D.'s death, Anna wrote the reminiscences of their 14 years of outwardly turbulent marriage--based on her extensive diaries. The result is by no means a hagiography. The stress and strain of the outward circumstances are ever present. It is a work full of fascinating details (most of them corroborated by later research), written with warmth, even charm, and, most of all, an unabashed, but not a blind, love for the man, who for her was not just the brooding genius we know through his novels. She still can smile about the man who courted her so awkwardly, feel a little embarrassed about the man who loved her so passionately, admire the man who loved their children so ardently, pity the man whose health was so cruel to him. This is an account that every lover of D. can read with great pleasure. It shows the man we know and the man she knew. The images overlap, complement, and enrich one another.

Beautiful relationship!

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