Humiliated and Insulted

Cautiously received by critics, the book nevertheless had immense significance for Dostoevsky himself: the first work he created after returning from exile. The novel became a kind of bridge from his early creativity to his later works, and many of its themes and images were developed in the "great pentateuch".

The young writer finds himself a witness to a tragic scene in a confectionery, yet he has no idea what role it will play in his fate. All his thoughts are occupied by Natasha Ikhmenova – the girl promised to him as a bride. But she falls in love with the son of Prince Valkovsky, with whom her father is in litigation, and runs away from home.

Love, pride, humiliation, forgiveness – in this novel Dostoevsky first touches upon the nerves that will make him the main writer of Russian literature.