The Writer's Diary (1877)

«The Writer's Diaries» by Dostoevsky represent a «encyclopedia of Russian life» in miniature. The author published both fiction – stories, sketches, and memoirs, as well as journalism – articles, notes, reviews, literary criticism, and feuilletons on social, political, and literary events of the time – writing about everything that personally struck and interested him. In the notes of 1877, Dostoevsky discusses the state of Russian satire, characterizes Nekrasov as a poet and a man, discusses «Anna Karenina» and much more. Also, in the «Diary» for 1877, the fantastic story «The Dream of a Ridiculous Man» was published for the first time. The «Diaries» were very popular among readers, who sent hundreds of letters to the author every month and praised him for his «sincerity and honesty of thought». Even during the writer's lifetime, all issues of the «Diary» for 1877 were collected and published in a separate edition.