The House of the Dead

The House of the Dead is a semi-autobiographical novel, portraying the life of convicts in a Siberian prison camp. For murdering his wife, the narrator, Aleksandr Petrovich Goryanchikov, is sentenced to deportation to Siberia and ten years of hard labor. As a member of the upper class, prison life is extremely difficult, but gradually Aleksandr and his fellow convicts grow in fraternity and experience a sort of spiritual reawakening. This work is renowned as a work of deep humanity, portraying prison convicts with sympathy and admiration, while exploring philosophical and ethical aspects of criminal justice. For Dostoevsky, the subject couldn’t be more personal.