The House of the Dead

The House of the Dead, by Fyodor Dostoevsky ★★★★
This book was written soon after Dostoevsky finished a three-year term in a Siberian prison for his alleged revolutionary activities. The story is written from the viewpoint of a nobleman for whom you are never told his crime and owes the state 10 years of hard labor. Much of the book is oriented around the first few weeks in the prison, the description of the prison hospital, the celebration of Christmas, and various prisoner stories describing events in prison or the crime that bought their prison sentence. It is a dark read, though with jocular moments, and a prelude to the even darker writings of prison life by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The book does end well, with a brief description of the release of the storyteller from prison, though that was preceded by the tale of an attempted escape. Dostoevsky excels in his ability to do character descriptions.
Again, this Mobile Reference version is filled with multiple typographical errors from the scanning of the originals. Usually, one may figure out the proper intended word, but sometimes it was not possible. I would discourage anybody from purchasing this set. It might be cheap, but you get what you pay for.