The Idiot

LITERARY CONTEXT

1821

Born in Moscow.

1823-31

Pushkin: Evgeny Onegin.

1825

1830

Stendhal: Le Rouge et le Noir.

1833-7

At school in Moscow.

1834

Family purchases estate of Darovoe.

Pushkin: The Queen of Spades.

1835

Balzac: Le Père Goriot.

1836

Gogol: The Government Inspector.

l837

Death of mother.

Enters St Petersburg Academy

of Military Engineering.

Dickens: Pickwick Papers. Death of Pushkin in duel.

1839

Death of father, assumed murdered by serfs.

Stendhal: La Chartreuse de Parme.

1840

Lermontov: A Hero of Our Time.

1841

Death of Lermontov in duel.

1842

Gogol: Dead Souls and The Overcoat.

1844

Graduates, but resigns commission in order to pursue literary career.

1845

Completes Poor Folk - acclaimed by the critic Belinsky.

1846

Publication of Poor Folk and The Double.

1847

Breaks with Belinsky. Joins Petrashevsky circle. "The Landlady", "A Novel in Nine Letters", "A Petersburg Chronicle".

Herzen: Who is to Blame? Herzen leaves Russia. Goncharov: An Ordinary Story.

1848

"A Faint Heart" and "White

Nights".

Death of Belinsky. Thackeray: Vanity Fair.

1849

Netochka Nezvanova. Arrested and imprisoned in Peter and Paul Fortress. Mock execution. Sentenced to hard labour and Siberian exile.

DATE

AUTHOR'S LIFE

LITERARY CONTEXT

1850

Arrives at Omsk penal colony.

Turgenev: A Month in the Country. Herzen: From the Other Shore. Dickens: David Copperfield.

1851

1852

Tolstoy: Childhood. Turgenev: A Sportsman's Notebook. Death of Gogol.

1853-6

1854

Posted to Semipalatinsk.

1855

1856

Turgenev: Rudin.

1857

Marries Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva.

Flaubert: Madame Bovary. Baudelaire: Les Fleurs du mal.

1859

The Friend of the Family. Returns to St Petersburg.

Turgenev: A Nest of Gentlefolk. Goncharov: Oblomov. Tolstoy: Family Happiness. Darwin: The Origin of Species.

1860

Starts publication of House of the Dead.

Turgenev: On the Eve.

George Eliot: The Mill on the Floss.

Birth of Chekhov.

1861

Time commences publication. The Insulted and Injured.

Dickens: Great Expectations.

1862

Travels in Europe. Affair with Polina Suslova.

Turgenev: Fathers and Children. Hugo: Les Misérables. Chernyshevsky arrested.

1863

Further travel abroad. Time closed. Winter Notes on Summer Impressions.

Tolstoy: The Cossacks. Chernyshevsky: What is to be . Done?

1864

Launch of The Epoch. Death of wife and brother. Notes from Underground.

1865

The Epoch closes. Severe financial difficulties.

Dickens: Our Mutual Friend.

1865-9

Tolstoy: War and Peace.

1866

(Mme and Punishment. The Gambler.

1867

Marries A

Turgenev: Smoke.

1868

The Idiot. Birth and death of daughter, Sonya. Visits Switzerland and Italy.

1869

Birth of daughter Liubov.

Flaubert: L'Education sentimentale.

DATE

AUTHOR'S LIFE

LITERARY CONTEXT

1870

The Eternal Husband.

Death of Dickens and Herzen.

1871

Returns to St Petersburg. ' Birth of son, Fyodor.

1871-

Demons (The Devils/The Possessed).

1872

Summer in Staraia Russa -becomes normal summer residence. Becomes editor of The Citizen.

Marx's Das Kapital published

in Russia.

George Eliot: Middlemarch.

1873