This volume presents an unpublished chapter from Dostoevsky's novel The Possessed, known as Stavrogin's Confession, alongside his plan for a never-written novel, The Life of a Great Sinner. With notes by Russian scholars, it offers a glimpse into Dostoevsky's exploration of guilt, faith, and the human soul.
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Cover of the original edition (Project Gutenberg, public domain).
Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
STAVROGIN’S CONFESSION
AND
THE PLAN OF
THE LIFE OF A GREAT SINNER
F. M. DOSTOEVSKY
STAVROGIN’S CONFESSION
AND
THE PLAN OF
THE LIFE OF A GREAT SINNER
WITH INTRODUCTORY AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
TRANSLATED BY
S. S. KOTELIANSKY AND VIRGINIA WOOLF
PUBLISHED BY LEONARD & VIRGINIA WOOLF AT THE HOGARTH PRESS, PARADISE ROAD, RICHMOND 1922 All rights reserved
TRANSLATORS’ NOTE
Tƒŧ Russian Government has recently published a small papercovered book containing Stavrogin’s Confession, unpublished chapters of Dostoevsky’s novel The Possessed, and Dostoevsky’s plan or sketch of a novel which he never actually wrote but which he called The Life of a Great Sinner. The circumstances in which these MSS. were discovered are described in the note of the Russian Government which we give below. Our translation of Stavrogin’s Confession and of the plan is from the text as published by the Russian Government. We have added translations of introductory or explanatory notes upon the two MSS. by V. Friche, V. Komarovich, and N. Brodsky. The notes by
Friche and Komarovich are given in the book published by the
Russian Government, that by M. Komarovich appeared in Builoe (No.
18, 1922).
It should be added that there are two different versions of the unpublished chapters of The Possessed in existence, and they have both been published for the first time this year. The second version, which is in the Pushkin Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was published in Builoe. We have not included it, since it appears to be an earlier version than that published by the Russian Government. It should be noted that M. Komarovich’s note refers to this version in the
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