Kate’s 2¢: “Now or never: thirty-one on the run” by Janet Evanovich

“Now or never: thirty-one on the run” by Janet Evanovich

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

Lorelei King did a fabulous job of narrating this story for us. I love the free spirit of Lola!  

www.evanovich.com

Janet Evanovich (née Schneider; April 22, 1943) is an American writer. She began her career writing short contemporary romance novels under the pen name Steffie Hall, but gained fame authoring a series of contemporary mysteries featuring Stephanie Plum, a former lingerie buyer from Trenton, New Jersey, who becomes a bounty hunter to make ends meet after losing her job. The novels in this series have been on The New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Amazon bestseller lists. Evanovich has had her last seventeen Plums debut at #1 on the NY Times Best Sellers list and eleven of them have hit #1 on USA Today Best-Selling Books list. She has over two hundred million books in print worldwide, and her books have been translated into over 40 languages.

Early years[edit]

Evanovich is a second-generation American born in South River, New Jersey, to a machinist and a housewife.[1] After attending South River High School,[2] she became the first in her family to attend college when she enrolled at Douglass Residential College, part of Rutgers University, to study art.[3][4]

When Evanovich had children, she chose to become a housewife like her mother. In her thirties, she began writing novels.[1] To learn the art of writing dialog, Evanovich took lessons in improv acting.[4] For ten years, she attempted to write the Great American Novel, finishing three manuscripts that she was unable to sell. After someone suggested she try writing romance novels, Evanovich read several romances and discovered that she enjoyed the genre. She wrote two romances and submitted them for publishing.[5] Still unable to find a publisher, Evanovich stopped writing and signed with a temporary employment agency. Several months after beginning work for them, she received an offer to buy her second romance manuscript for $2,000, which she considered an “astounding sum”.[4]

Romance novels[edit]

That novel, Hero at Large, was published in 1987 in the Second Chance Love category line under the pseudonym Steffie Hall.[1] The following year she began writing for Bantam Loveswept under her own name.[5] For the next five years she continued to write category romances for Loveswept.[4] Her work within the romance novel genre helped her learn to create likable characters and attractive leading men.[6] In this time, Evanovich also became known for the humor that filled her novels. She believes that “it’s very important to take a comic approach. If we can laugh at something, we can face it.”[7]

After finishing her twelfth romance, however, Evanovich realized that she was more interested in writing the action sequences in her novels than the sex scenes. Her editors were not interested in her change of heart, so Evanovich took the next eighteen months to formulate a plan for what she actually wanted to write.[1]

Stephanie Plum Series[edit]

She quickly decided that she wanted to write romantic adventure novels.[8] She wanted to include humor, romance and adventure in her work and this fit into her style of mystery novel.[9] Unlike the style of romance novels, her books would be told in first person narrative.[4] Her new type of writing should contain heroes and heroines, as well as “a sense of family and community”.[1] In that vein, she intended her new style of writing to be based on the TV sitcom model. Like Seinfeld, her new books would have a central character that the rest of the cast of characters revolve around.[8]

Inspired by the Robert De Niro movie Midnight Run, Evanovich decided that her heroine would be a bounty hunter.[1] This occupation provided more freedom for Evanovich as a writer, as bounty hunters do not have a set work schedule and are not forced to wear a uniform. The profession is also “romanticised to some extent”.[7] To become acquainted with the demands of the career, Evanovich spent a great deal of time shadowing bond enforcement agents. She also researched more about the city of Trenton, where she wanted her books to be set.[1]

In 1994, her initial romantic adventure, One for the Money, was published to good reviews.[1] This was the first of a light-hearted series of mysteries starring barely competent bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. One for the Money was named a New York Times notable book, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1994 and a USA Today Best Bet.[10]

Evanovich has continued to write romantic adventures starring Plum. The sixth book in the series, Hot Six, was the first of her novels to reach number one on the New York Times Best Seller List.[3] Her subsequent Plum novels have each debuted at number one.[11] All About Romance has described her as the “rare breed of romance author who has left the genre and yet not alienated her many romance fans”.[5]

FROM nls/bard/loc:

Now or never: thirty-one on the run DB126056

Evanovich, Janet. Reading time: 7 hours, 42 minutes.

Read by Lorelei King.

Suspense Fiction

Humor

Mystery and Detective Stories

Bestsellers

“She said yes to Morelli. She said yes to Ranger. Now Stephanie Plum has two fiancés and no idea what to do about it. But the way things are going, she might not live long enough to marry anyone. While Stephanie stalls for time, she buries herself in her work as a bounty hunter, tracking down an unusually varied assortment of fugitives from justice. There’s Eugene Fleck, a seemingly sweet online influencer who might also be YouTube star Robin Hoodie, masked hero to the homeless, who hijacks delivery trucks and distributes their contents to the needy. She’s also on the trail of Bruno Jug, a wealthy and connected man in the wholesale produce business who is rumored to traffic young girls alongside lettuce and tomatoes. Most terrifying of all is Zoran–a laundromat manager by day and self-proclaimed vampire by night with a taste for the blood of pretty girls. When he shows up on Stephanie’s doorstep, it’s not for the meatloaf dinner. With timely assists from her stalwart supporters Lula, Connie, and Grandma Mazur, Stephanie uses every trick in the book to reel in these men. But only she can decide what to do about the two men she actually loves. She can’t hold Ranger and Morelli at bay for long, and she’s keeping a secret from them that is the biggest bombshell of all. Now or never, she’s got to make the decision of a lifetime.”– Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller.

Downloaded: March 27, 2025

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Kate’s 2¢: “The master of Ballantrae: a winter’s tale” by Robert Louis Stevenson

“The master of Ballantrae: a winter’s tale” by Robert Louis Stevenson

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Tom Martin did a good job of narrating This interesting tale of betrayal, intrigue, and a love triangle.

A few Takeaways:

–…forever falling in with extraordinary incidences and I was myself on the brink of one so astonishing, that I protest I cannot explain it.

–…JD, heir to a Scottish title, a Master of the Arts and Graces, Admired in Europe, Asia, America, in war and peace in the tents of savage hunters, to the citidles of Kings after so much acquired accomplished and endured lies here forgotten.

–HD, his brother, after a life of unmerited distress, bravely supported, died almost in the same hour and sleeps in the same grave and and sleeps in the same grave as his fraternal enemy. The piety of his wife and one old servantraised this stone to both.

Wikipedia

 Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as Treasure Island, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Kidnapped and A Child’s Garden of Verses.

Born and educated in Edinburgh, Stevenson suffered from serious bronchial trouble for much of his life but continued to write prolifically and travel widely in defiance of his poor health. As a young man, he mixed in London literary circles, receiving encouragement from Sidney Colvin, Andrew Lang, Edmund Gosse,[1] Leslie Stephen and W. E. Henley, the last of whom may have provided the model for Long John Silver in Treasure Island. In 1890, he settled in Samoa where, alarmed at increasing European and American influence in the South Sea islands, his writing turned from romance and adventure fiction toward a darker realism. He died of a stroke in his island home in 1894 at age 44.[2]

A celebrity in his lifetime, Stevenson’s critical reputation has fluctuated since his death, though today his works are held in general acclaim. In 2018, he was ranked just behind Charles Dickens as the 26th-most-translated author in the world.[3]

Family and education[edit]

Childhood and youth[edit]

Stevenson’s childhood home in Heriot Row

Stevenson was born at 8 Howard Place, Edinburgh, Scotland, on 13 November 1850 to Thomas Stevenson (1818–1887), a leading lighthouse engineer, and his wife, Margaret Isabella (born Balfour, 1829–1897). He was christened Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson. At about age 18, he changed the spelling of “Lewis” to “Louis”, and he dropped “Balfour” in 1873.[4][5]

Lighthouse design was the family’s profession; Thomas’s father (Robert’s grandfather) was the civil engineer Robert Stevenson, and Thomas’s brothers (Robert’s uncles) Alan and David were in the same field.[6] Thomas’s maternal grandfather Thomas Smith had been in the same profession. However, Robert’s mother’s family were gentry, tracing their lineage back to Alexander Balfour, who had held the lands of Inchrye in Fife in the fifteenth century.[7] His mother’s father, Lewis Balfour (1777–1860), was a minister of the Church of Scotland at nearby Colinton,[8] and her siblings included physician George William Balfour and marine engineer James Balfour. Stevenson spent the greater part of his boyhood holidays in his maternal grandfather’s house. “Now I often wonder what I inherited from this old minister,” Stevenson wrote. “I must suppose, indeed, that he was fond of preaching sermons, and so am I, though I never heard it maintained that either of us loved to hear them.”[9]

Lewis Balfour and his daughter both had weak chests, so they often needed to stay in warmer climates for their health. Stevenson inherited a tendency to coughs and fevers, exacerbated when the family moved to a damp, chilly house at 1 Inverleith Terrace in 1851.[10] The family moved again to the sunnier 17 Heriot Row when Stevenson was six years old, but the tendency to extreme sickness in winter remained with him until he was 11. Illness was a recurrent feature of his adult life and left him extraordinarily thin.[11] Contemporaneous views were that he had tuberculosis, but more recent views are that it was bronchiectasis[12] or sarcoidosis.[13] The family also summered in the spa town of Bridge of Allan, in North Berwick, and in Peebles for the sake of Stevenson’s and his mother’s health; “Stevenson’s cave” in Bridge of Allan was reportedly the inspiration for the character Ben Gunn’s cave dwelling in Stevenson’s 1883 novel Treasure Island.[14]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The master of Ballantrae: a winter’s tale. DB10700

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Reading time: 7 hours, 55 minutes.

Read by Tom Martin.

Classics

Adventure

Story of a tragic bitter feud between two Scottish brothers. The elder brother, believed to have died in battle, returns home to persecute his younger brother, who has succeeded him to his title and estate and married his betrothed.

Downloaded: February 11, 2025

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Kate’s 2¢: “Marcus of Umbria: what an Italian dog taught an American girl about love” by Justine Van der Leun 

“Marcus of Umbria: what an Italian dog taught an American girl about love” by Justine Van der Leun 

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Marylyn Burridge did a nice job of reading this story about a woman in a foreign land. I think it was obvious from the get-go, that she was shacking up with the wrong guy for all the wrong reasons.

A few takeaways:

–I felt a dawning kinship with all the non-English speaking immigrants with whom I had conversed back in America.

–…subvert their personalities due to the limitations of language.

–smiling is a submissive gesture, because a lack of language strips you of your identity and makes you feel weak.

–The love for which I wandered the earth was found between a dog and me.

–We know the truth, not by the reason, but by the heart.

From BING:

Justine van der Leun is an independent journalist, an author, and a fellow at Type Media Center. Her features have been published in the Appeal, the New York Review of Books, Harper’s, the …

justinevdl.com

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Marcus of Umbria: what an Italian dog taught an American girl about love DBC27817

Van der Leun, Justine. Reading time: 7 hours, 32 minutes.

Read by Marylyn Burridge.

Biography

Animals and Wildlife

Adult.

Downloaded: February 23, 2025

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Kate’s 2¢: “The Old Man and The Sea” by Ernest Hemingway

“The Old Man and The Sea” by Ernest Hemingway

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Ray Hagen did a good job of narrating this classic sea story. I ended up admiring both the Marlin and the old man for their perseverance. I also found it admirable that the young boy cared for and tended to the old man’s needs.

From Copilot”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, journalist, and sportsman. His economical and understated style significantly influenced later 20th-century writers. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.View source at britannica.com

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The old man and the sea DB10319

Hemingway, Ernest. Reading time: 2 hours, 13 minutes.

Read by Ray Hagen.

Classics

Adventure

Classic tale of the old Cuban fisherman Santiago and his days-long struggle with a magnificent marlin on open water in a frail skiff. Pulitzer Prize. 1952.

Downloaded: February 11, 2025

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Kate’s 2¢: “Scandinavian crime fiction” by Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen  

 “Scandinavian crime fiction” by Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen  

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   I think Peter Holdway Was the narrator for this well-researched history book analyzing Scandinavian crime.

A few takeaways:

–…Proceeding from this diagnosis of a self-perpetuated collective image of the harmonious welfare state where perceived notions of what constitutes the good society were turned on their head…

–This book will propose the crimes recorded in Scandinavian fiction are symptoms of an age of uncertainty, where the comforts of the welfare state have ceased to provide the ointment  that may relieve the collective itch.

–This is the age of intensified globalization of perpetual transients, marked by the restlessness of a rampant global consumer society…

–…Does not   represent Scandinavian society realistically.

–Pippy Longstocking, The Automatist  child under moral logic of the Swedish welfare State by Astrin Lindgren, allegory of Swedish culture.

From BING:

Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen is an Associate Professor at the School of European Languages, Culture and Society, University College London. His research areas include nineteenth-century, modern and contemporary Nordic Literature, publishing and media, including Scandinavian Crime FictionView source at nordics.info. He has also published studies on world literature, book history, environmentalism, Hans Christian Andersen, Henry James, Scandinavian crime fiction, and the welfare stateView source at ucl.academia.edu.

FROM nls/bard/loc:

Scandinavian crime fiction DB109134

Stougaard-Nielsen, Jakob Reading time: 8 hours, 50 minutes.

Peter Holdway

Literature

“With its bleak urban environments, psychologically compelling heroes and socially engaged plots, Scandinavian crime writing has captured the imaginations of a global audience in the 21st century. Exploring the genre’s key themes, international impact and socio-political contexts, Scandinavian Crime Fiction guides readers through such key texts as Sjöwall and Wahlöö’s Novel of a Crime, Gunnar Staalesen’s Varg Veum series, Peter Høeg’s Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow, Henning Mankell’s Wallander books, Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy and TV series such as The Killing. With its focus on the function of crime fiction in both reflecting and shaping the late-modern Scandinavian welfare societies, this book is essential for readers, viewers and fans of contemporary crime writing.” — Provided by publisher. 2017.

Download Scandinavian crime fiction DB109134

Kate’s 2¢: “The Great stone face and other tales” by Nathaneal Hawthrorne

“The Great stone face and other tales” by Nathaneal Hawthrorne

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

Nelson Runger  did a good job of narrating this classic for NLS. There is a technique to developing a short story and These pieces are good examples of success. 

From Wikipedia:

Nathaniel Hawthorne (né Hathorne; July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion.

He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that town. Hawthorne entered Bowdoin College in 1821, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1824,[1] and graduated in 1825. He published his first work in 1828, the novel Fanshawe; he later tried to suppress it, feeling that it was not equal to the standard of his later work.[2] He published several short stories in periodicals, which he collected in 1837 as Twice-Told Tales. The following year, he became engaged to Sophia Peabody. He worked at the Boston Custom House and joined Brook Farm, a transcendentalist community, before marrying Peabody in 1842. The couple moved to The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, later moving to Salem, the Berkshires, then to The Wayside in Concord. The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, followed by a succession of other novels. A political appointment as consul took Hawthorne and family to Europe before their return to Concord in 1860. Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864.

Much of Hawthorne’s writing centers on New England, and many works feature moral metaphors with an anti-Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement and, more specifically, dark romanticism. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity. His published works include novels, short stories, and a biography of his college friend Franklin Pierce, written for his 1852 campaign for President of the United States, which Pierce won, becoming the 14th president.

Biography[edit]

Early life[edit]

File:Nathaniel_Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hathorne, as his name was originally spelled, was born on July 4, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts; his birthplace is preserved and open to the public.[3] His great-great-great-grandfather, William Hathorne, was a Puritan and the first of the family to emigrate from England. He settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts, before moving to Salem. There he became an important member of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and held many political positions, including magistrate and judge, becoming infamous for his harsh sentencing.[4] William’s son, Hawthorne’s great-great-grandfather John Hathorne was one of the judges who oversaw the Salem witch trials. Hawthorne probably added the “w” to his surname in his early twenties, shortly after graduating from college, in an effort to dissociate himself from his notorious forebears.[5] Hawthorne’s father Nathaniel Hathorne Sr. was a sea captain who died in 1808 of yellow fever in Dutch Suriname;[6] he had been a member of the East India Marine Society.[7] After his death, his widow moved with young Nathaniel, his older sister Elizabeth, and their younger sister Louisa to live with relatives named the Mannings in Salem,[8] where they lived for 10 years. Young Hawthorne was hit on the leg while playing “bat and ball” on November 10, 1813,[9] and he became lame and bedridden for a year, though several physicians could find nothing wrong with him.[10]

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s childhood home in Raymond, Maine, built in 1804[11]

In the summer of 1816, the family lived as boarders with farmers[12] before moving to a home recently built specifically for them by Hawthorne’s uncles Richard and Robert Manning in Raymond, Maine, near Sebago Lake.[13] Years later, Hawthorne looked back at his time in Maine fondly: “Those were delightful days, for that part of the country was wild then, with only scattered clearings, and nine tenths of it primeval woods.”[14] In 1819, he was sent back to Salem for school and soon complained of homesickness and being too far from his mother and sisters.[15] He distributed seven issues of The Spectator to his family in August and September 1820 for fun. The homemade newspaper was written by hand and included essays, poems, and news featuring the young author’s adolescent humor.[16]

Hawthorne’s uncle Robert Manning insisted that the boy attend college, despite Hawthorne’s protests.[17] With the financial support of his uncle, Hawthorne was sent to Bowdoin College in 1821, partly because of family connections in the area, and also because of its relatively inexpensive tuition rate.[18] Hawthorne met future president Franklin Pierce on the way to Bowdoin, at the stage stop in Portland, and the two became fast friends.[17] Once at the school, he also met future poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, future congressman Jonathan Cilley, and future naval reformer Horatio Bridge.[19] He graduated with the class of 1825, and later described his college experience to Richard Henry Stoddard:

I was educated (as the phrase is) at Bowdoin College. I was an idle student, negligent of college rules and the Procrustean details of academic life, rather choosing to nurse my own fancies than to dig into Greek roots and be numbered among the learned Thebans.[20]

From NLS/BRD/LOC:

The Great stone face and other tales DB93698

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Reading time: 2 hours, 3 minutes.

Read by Nelson Runger.

Short Stories

Classics

Collection of four haunting stories set in the White Mountains of New Hampshire written between 1835 and 1850. Includes “The Great Stone Face,” “The Ambitious Guest,” “The Great Carbuncle,” and “Sketches from Memory. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 1850.

Downloaded: February 11, 2025

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Kate’s 2¢: “The royal physician’s visit” by Olov Per Enquist

   Translated by Tiina Nunnally

“The royal physician’s visit” by Olov Per Enquist

   Translated by Tiina Nunnally

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Steve Douglas-Craig did a good job of reading this very interesting story. It might one think about who actually is running our country.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Per Olov Enquist, also known as P. O. Enquist, (23 September 1934 – 25 April 2020)[1] was a Swedish author.[2] He had worked as a journalist, playwright and novelist.

Biography[edit]

Enquist was born and raised in Hjoggböle, a village in present-day Skellefteå Municipality, Västerbotten. He was the only son of a single mother, who became a widow when he was half a year old. In his youth, he was a promising athlete with a high jump personal best of 1.97 meters.[3] He studied at Uppsala University, receiving a degree in the history of literature.[4]

During his time in Uppsala he started writing, his first novel Kristallögat being published in 1961, and became a newspaper journalist.[3] Enquist won the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize in 1968 for The Legionnaires, his account of Sweden’s deportation of Baltic-country soldiers at the end of the second world war, a novel which also became his international breakthrough.[3][5] Enquist was to write several more novels based on true events. Kapten Nemos bibliotek (1991) took inspiration from Bureåfallet [sv] where two newly born boys were accidentally switched; The Visit of the Royal Physician (1999) was based on the life of Danish King Christian VII and his physician Johann Friedrich Struensee, and Struensee’s political machinations and relationship with the King’s wife Caroline Matilda in the 1770s; Lewis resa (2001) covered the life of Pentecostalist Lewi Pethrus; while Boken om Blanche och Marie (2004) was based on the friendship of Marie Curie and mental patient Marie “Blanche” Wittman.[6][7][8] Enquist’s first stage play was Tribadernas natt (1975), a story about Swedish author August Strindberg, his soon-to-be ex-wife Siri von Essen, and von Essen’s presumed lover Marie David [sv].[9][10][11]

Tiina Nunnally American author and translator, renowned for her translations of Scandinavian literature into English.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The royal physician’s visit DB59098

Enquist, Per Olov; Nunnally, Tiina. Reading time: 9 hours, 50 minutes.

Read by Steve Douglas-Craig.

Historical Fiction

Psychological Fiction

German Johann Struensee becomes personal physician to Denmark’s young, deranged King Christian in the 1760s, a time of political and social upheaval there. Although Enlightenment-educated Struensee gains absolute power, his affair with the queen precipitates a dramatic end. Some explicit descriptions of sex, some violence, and some strong language. 1999.

Downloaded: March 6, 2025

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Kate’s 2¢: “The long quiche goodbye” by Avery Aames

“The long quiche goodbye” by Avery Aames

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

I enjoyed listening to Harriet Millstone read this “gentle murder” mystery. I also enjoyed the recipes at the end of the book, but can you really trust a man who doesn’t let you know his real name?   

From the WEB:

Avery Aames, author of A Cheese Shop Mystery for Berkley Prime Crime, is the pseudonym for Daryl Wood Gerber. Daryl created the format for the popular sitcom, “Out of …

© 2003-2025 off-the-edge.net  all rights reserved Privacy Policy

Agatha Award-winning author Daryl Wood Gerber is best known for her nationally bestselling mysteries, including the Fairy Garden Mysteries and Cookbook Nook.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The long quiche goodbye DBG07939

Aames, Avery. Reading time: 9 hours, 17 minutes.

Read by Harriet Millstone.

Mystery and Detective Stories

Welcome to the grand opening of Fromagerie Bessette. Proprietor Charlotte Bessette has prepared a sampling of cheddar, stilton and mascarpone, and a taste of sauvignon blanc, but someone else has decided to make a little crime of passion the piece de resistance. Right outside the shop Charlotte finds a body, the victim stabbed to death with one of her prized olive-wood handled knives. Some descriptions of violence. 2010. Marrakesh title.

Downloaded: March 6, 2025

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Kate’s 2¢: “The double: two versions” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

  Translated by Evelyn J. Harden

“The double: two versions” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

  Translated by Evelyn J. Harden

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Noah Siegel did a good job of reading this classic for NLS. I found this classic very interesting; however, the edits were in brackets. These were distracting from the narrative arc, and I didn’t agree with many of the changes the translator wanted to make.  I’d rather read the original.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky[a][b] (11 November [O.S. 30 October] 1821 – 9 February [O.S. 28 January] 1881)[3] was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. Numerous literary critics regard him as one of the greatest novelists in all of world literature,[3] as many of his works are considered highly influential masterpieces.[4][5] Dostoevsky’s literary works explore the human condition in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century Russia, and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most acclaimed novels include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872), The Adolescent (1875), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). His 1864 novella Notes from Underground is considered to be one of the first works of existentialist literature.[6]

Born in Moscow in 1821, Dostoevsky was introduced to literature at an early age through fairy tales and legends, and through books by Russian and foreign authors. His mother died in 1837 when he was 15, and around the same time, he left school to enter the Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute. After graduating, he worked as an engineer and briefly enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, translating books to earn extra money. In the mid-1840s he wrote his first novel, Poor Folk, which gained him entry into Saint Petersburg’s literary circles. However, he was arrested in 1849 for belonging to a literary group, the Petrashevsky Circle, that discussed banned books critical of Tsarist Russia. Dostoevsky was sentenced to death but the sentence was commuted at the last moment. He spent four years in a Siberian prison camp, followed by six years of compulsory military service in exile. In the following years, Dostoevsky worked as a journalist, publishing and editing several magazines of his own and later A Writer’s Diary, a collection of his writings. He began to travel around western Europe and developed a gambling addiction, which led to financial hardship. For a time, he had to beg for money, but he eventually became one of the most widely read and highly regarded Russian writers.

Dostoevsky’s body of work consists of thirteen novels, three novellas, seventeen short stories, and numerous other works. His writings were widely read both within and beyond his native Russia and influenced an equally great number of later writers including Russians such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Anton Chekhov, philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre, and the emergence of Existentialism and Freudianism.[3] His books have been translated into more than 170 languages, and served as the inspiration for many films.

Ancestry[edit]

Parents

File:Maria_Fyodorovna_Dostoyev…

Maria Fyodorovna Dostoevskaya

File:Mikhail_Andreyevich_Dosto…

Mikhail Andreyevich Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky’s paternal ancestors were part of a Russian noble family of Russian Orthodox Christians. The family traced its roots back to Danilo Irtishch, who was granted lands in the Pinsk region (for centuries part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, now in modern-day Belarus) in 1509 for his services under a local prince, his progeny then taking the name “Dostoevsky” based on a village there called Dostojewo [pl] (derived from Old Polish dostojnik – dignitary).[7]

Dostoevsky’s immediate ancestors on his mother’s side were merchants; the male line on his father’s side were priests.[8][9]

In 1809, the 20-year-old Mikhail Dostoevsky enrolled in Moscow’s Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy. From there he was assigned to a Moscow hospital, where he served as military doctor, and in 1818 he was appointed a senior physician. In 1819 he married Maria Nechayeva. The following year, he took up a post at the Mariinsky Hospital for the poor. In 1828, when his two sons, Mikhail and Fyodor, were eight and seven respectively, he was promoted to collegiate assessor, a position which raised his legal status to that of the nobility and enabled him to acquire a small estate in Darovoye, a town about 150 km (100 miles) from Moscow, where the family usually spent the summers.[10] Dostoevsky’s parents subsequently had six more children: Varvara (1822–1892), Andrei (1825–1897), Lyubov (born and died 1829), Vera (1829–1896), Nikolai (1831–1883) and Aleksandra (1835–1889).[11][8][9]

Childhood (1821–1836)[edit]

Fyodor Dostoevsky, born on 11 November [O.S. 30 October] 1821 in Moscow, was the second child of Dr. Mikhail Dostoevsky and Maria Dostoevskaya (born Nechayeva). He was raised in the family home in the grounds of the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor, which was in a lower class district on the edges of Moscow.[12] Dostoevsky encountered the patients, who were at the lower end of the Russian social scale, when playing in the hospital gardens.[13]

Dostoevsky was introduced to literature at an early age. From the age of three, he was read heroic sagas, fairy tales and legends by his nanny, Alena Frolovna, an especially influential figure in his upbringing and his love for fictional stories.[14] When he was four, his mother used the Bible to teach him to read and write. His parents introduced him to a wide range of literature, including Russian writers Karamzin, Pushkin and Derzhavin; Gothic fiction such as the works from writer Ann Radcliffe; romantic works by Schiller and Goethe; heroic tales by Miguel de Cervantes and Walter Scott; and Homer’s epics.[15][16] Dostoevsky was greatly influenced by the work of Nikolai Gogol.[17] Although his father’s approach to education has been described as strict and harsh,[18] Dostoevsky himself reported that his imagination was brought alive by nightly readings by his parents.[13]

Some of his childhood experiences found their way into his writings. When a nine-year-old girl had been raped by a drunk, he was asked to fetch his father to attend to her. The incident haunted him, and the theme of the desire of a mature man for a young girl appears in The Devils, The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, and other writings.[19] An incident involving a family servant, or serf, in the estate in Darovoye, is described in “The Peasant Marey”: when the young Dostoevsky imagines hearing a wolf in the forest, Marey, who is working nearby, comforts him.[20]

Another memory that Dostoyevsky referred to in his prose was summer trips to his father’s estate in the Kashirsky District of the Tula Governorate, which was purchased between 1831 and 1833. [21]

Although Dostoevsky had a delicate physical constitution, his parents described him as hot-headed, stubborn, and cheeky.[22] In 1833, Dostoevsky’s father, who was profoundly religious, sent him to a French boarding school and then to the Chermak boarding school. He was described as a pale, introverted dreamer and an over-excitable romantic.[23] To pay the school fees, his father borrowed money and extended his private medical practice. Dostoevsky felt out of place among his aristocratic classmates at the Moscow school, and the experience was later reflected in some of his works, notably The Adolescent.[24][16]

Youth (1836–1843)[edit]

On 27 February 1837, Dostoevsky’s mother died of tuberculosis. The previous May, his parents had sent Dostoevsky and his brother Mikhail to Saint Petersburg to attend the free Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute, forcing the brothers to abandon their academic studies for military careers. Dostoevsky entered the academy in January 1838, but only with the help of family members. Mikhail was refused admission on health grounds and was sent to an academy in Reval (now Tallinn, Estonia).[25][26]

Dostoevsky disliked the academy, primarily because of his lack of interest in science, mathematics, and military engineering and his preference for drawing and architecture. As his friend Konstantin Trutovsky once said, “There was no student in the entire institution with less of a military bearing than F.M. Dostoevsky. He moved clumsily and jerkily; his uniform hung awkwardly on him; and his knapsack, shako and rifle all looked like some sort of fetter he had been forced to wear for a time and which lay heavily on him.”[27] Dostoevsky’s character and interests made him an outsider among his 120 classmates: he showed bravery and a strong sense of justice, protected newcomers, aligned himself with teachers, criticised corruption among officers, and helped poor farmers. Although he was solitary and inhabited his own literary world, he was respected by his classmates. His reclusiveness and interest in religion earned him the nickname “Monk Photius”.[28][29]

Signs of Dostoevsky’s epilepsy may have first appeared on learning of the death of his father on 16 June 1839,[30] although the reports of a seizure originated from accounts written by his daughter (later expanded by Sigmund Freud[31]) which are now considered to be unreliable. His father’s official cause of death was an apoplectic stroke, but a neighbour, Pavel Khotiaintsev, accused the father’s serfs of murder. Had the serfs been found guilty and sent to Siberia, Khotiaintsev would have been in a position to buy the vacated land. The serfs were acquitted in a trial in Tula, but Dostoevsky’s brother Mikhail perpetuated the story.[32] After his father’s death, Dostoevsky continued his studies, passed his exams and obtained the rank of engineer cadet, entitling him to live away from the academy. He visited Mikhail in Reval (Tallinn) and frequently attended concerts, operas, plays and ballets. During this time, two of his friends introduced him to gambling.[33][29]

On 12 August 1843 Dostoevsky took a job as a lieutenant engineer and lived with Adolph Totleben in an apartment owned by Dr. Rizenkampf, a friend of Mikhail. Rizenkampf characterised him as “no less good-natured and no less courteous than his brother, but when not in a good mood he often looked at everything through dark glasses, became vexed, forgot good manners, and sometimes was carried away to the point of abusiveness and loss of self-awareness”.[34] Dostoevsky’s first completed literary work, a translation of Honoré de Balzac’s novel Eugénie Grandet, was published in June and July 1843 in the 6th and 7th volumes of the journal Repertoire and Pantheon,[35][36] followed by several other translations. None were successful, and his financial difficulties led him to write a novel.[37][29]

Career[edit]

Early career (1844–1849)[edit]

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Dostoevsky, 1847

Dostoevsky completed his first novel, Poor Folk, in May 1845. His friend Dmitry Grigorovich, with whom he was sharing an apartment at the time, took the manuscript to the poet Nikolay Nekrasov, who in turn showed it to the influential literary critic Vissarion Belinsky. Belinsky described it as Russia’s first “social novel”.[38] Poor Folk was released on 15 January 1846 in the St Petersburg Collection almanac and became a commercial success.[39][40]

Dostoevsky felt that his military career would endanger his now flourishing literary career, so he wrote a letter asking to resign his post. Shortly thereafter, he wrote his second novel, The Double, which appeared in the journal Notes of the Fatherland on 30 January 1846, before being published in February. Around the same time, Dostoevsky discovered socialism through the writings of French thinkers Fourier, Cabet, Proudhon and Saint-Simon. Through his relationship with Belinsky he expanded his knowledge of the philosophy of socialism. He was attracted to its logic, its sense of justice and its preoccupation with the destitute and the disadvantaged. However, his Russian Orthodox faith and religious sensibilities could not accord with Belinsky’s admixture of atheism, utilitarianism and scientific materialism, leading to increasing friction between them. Dostoevsky eventually parted with him and his associates.[41][42]

After The Double received negative reviews (including a particularly scathing one from Belinsky) Dostoevsky’s health declined and his seizures became more frequent, but he continued writing. From 1846 to 1848 he published several short stories in the magazine Notes of the Fatherland, including “Mr. Prokharchin”, “The Landlady”, “A Weak Heart”, and “White Nights”. The negative reception of these stories, combined with his health problems and Belinsky’s attacks, caused him distress and financial difficulty, but this was greatly alleviated when he joined the utopian socialist Beketov circle, a tightly knit community which helped him to survive. When the circle dissolved, Dostoevsky befriended Apollon Maykov and his brother Valerian. In 1846, on the recommendation of the poet Aleksey Pleshcheyev,[43] he joined the Petrashevsky Circle, founded by Mikhail Petrashevsky, who had proposed social reforms in Russia. Mikhail Bakunin once wrote to Alexander Herzen that the group was “the most innocent and harmless company” and its members were “systematic opponents of all revolutionary goals and means”.[44] Dostoevsky used the circle’s library on Saturdays and Sundays and occasionally participated in their discussions on freedom from censorship and the abolition of serfdom.[45][46] Bakunin’s description, however, was not true of the aristocrat Nikolay Speshnev, who joined the circle in 1848 and set about creating a secret revolutionary society from amongst its members. Dostoevsky himself became a member of this society, was aware of its conspiratorial aims, and actively participated, although he harboured significant doubts about their actions and intentions.[47]

In 1849, the first parts of Netochka Nezvanova, a novel Dostoevsky had been planning since 1846, were published in Notes of the Fatherland, but his banishment ended the project leaving only what was supposed to be the prologue of the novel. Dostoevsky never attempted to complete it leaving only a sketch of the novel behind.[48]

Siberian exile (1849–1854)[edit]

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A sketch of the Petrashevsky Circle mock execution

The members of the Petrashevsky Circle were denounced to Liprandi, an official at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Dostoevsky was accused of reading works by Belinsky, including the banned Letter to Gogol,[49] and of circulating copies of these and other works. Antonelli, the government agent who had reported the group, wrote in his statement that at least one of the papers criticised Russian politics and religion. Dostoevsky responded to these charges by declaring that he had read the essays only “as a literary monument, neither more nor less”; he spoke of “personality and human egoism” rather than of politics. Even so, he and his fellow “conspirators” were arrested on 23 April 1849 at the request of Count A. Orlov and Tsar Nicholas I, who feared a revolution like the Decembrist revolt of 1825 in Russia and the Revolutions of 1848 in Europe. The members were held in the well-defended Peter and Paul Fortress, which housed the most dangerous convicts.[50][51][52]

The case was discussed for four months by an investigative commission headed by the Tsar, with Adjutant General Ivan Nabokov, senator Prince Pavel Gagarin, Prince Vasili Dolgorukov, General Yakov Rostovtsev and General Leonty Dubelt, head of the secret police. They sentenced the members of the circle to death by firing squad, and the prisoners were taken to Semyonov Place in Saint Petersburg on 23 December 1849. They were split into three-man groups and the first group was taken in front of the firing squad. Dostoevsky was the third in the second row; next to him stood Pleshcheyev and Durov. The execution was stayed when a cart delivered a letter from the Tsar commuting the sentence. Dostoevsky later described the experience of what he believed to be the last moments of his life in his novel The Idiot. The story of a young man sentenced to death by firing squad but reprieved at the last moment is recounted by the main character, Prince Myshkin, who describes the experience from the point of view of the victim, and considers the philosophical and spiritual implications.

Dostoevsky served four years of exile with hard labour at a katorga prison camp in Omsk, Siberia, followed by a term of compulsory military service. After a fourteen-day sleigh ride, the prisoners reached Tobolsk, a prisoner way station. Despite the circumstances, Dostoevsky consoled the other prisoners, such as the Petrashevist Ivan Yastrzhembsky, who was surprised by Dostoevsky’s kindness and eventually abandoned his decision to kill himself. In Tobolsk, the members received food and clothes from the Decembrist women, as well as several copies of the New Testament with a ten-ruble banknote inside each copy. Eleven days later, Dostoevsky reached Omsk[51][53] together with just one other member of the Petrashevsky Circle, the writer Sergei Durov.[54] Dostoevsky described his barracks:

In summer, intolerable closeness; in winter, unendurable cold. All the floors were rotten. Filth on the floors an inch thick; one could slip and fall … We were packed like herrings in a barrel … There was no room to turn around. From dusk to dawn it was impossible not to behave like pigs … Fleas, lice, and black beetles by the bushel …[55][missing long citation]

Classified as “one of the most dangerous convicts”, Dostoevsky had his hands and feet shackled until his release. He was only permitted to read his New Testament Bible. In addition to his seizures, he had haemorrhoids, lost weight and was “burned by some fever, trembling and feeling too hot or too cold every night”. The smell of the privy pervaded the entire building, and the small bathroom had to suffice for more than 200 people. Dostoevsky was occasionally sent to the military hospital, where he read newspapers and Dickens novels. He was respected by most of the other prisoners, but despised by some Polish political prisoners because of his Russian nationalism and anti-Polish sentiments.[56][57]

Release from prison and first marriage (1854–1866)[edit]

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Dostoevsky as a military engineer in 1858 or -59,[58] portrait by Solomon Leibin (Соломон Лейбин)

After his release on 14 February 1854, Dostoevsky asked Mikhail to help him financially and to send him books by Vico, Guizot, Ranke, Hegel and Kant.[59] The House of the Dead, based on his experience in prison, was published in 1861 in the journal Vremya (“Time”) – it was the first published novel about Russian prisons.[60] Before moving in mid-March to Semipalatinsk, where he was forced to serve in the Siberian Army Corps of the Seventh Line Battalion, Dostoevsky met geographer Pyotr Semyonov and ethnographer Shokan Walikhanuli. Around November 1854, he met Baron Alexander Egorovich Wrangel, an admirer of his books, who had attended the aborted execution. They both rented houses in the Cossack Garden outside Semipalatinsk. Wrangel remarked that Dostoevsky “looked morose. His sickly, pale face was covered with freckles, and his blond hair was cut short. He was a little over average height and looked at me intensely with his sharp, grey-blue eyes. It was as if he were trying to look into my soul and discover what kind of man I was.”[61][62][63]

In Semipalatinsk, Dostoevsky tutored several schoolchildren and came into contact with upper-class families, including that of Lieutenant-Colonel Belikhov, who used to invite him to read passages from newspapers and magazines. During a visit to Belikhov, Dostoevsky met the family of Alexander Ivanovich Isaev and Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva and fell in love with the latter. Alexander Isaev took a new post in Kuznetsk, where he died in August 1855. Maria and her son then moved with Dostoevsky to Barnaul. In 1856, Dostoevsky sent a letter through Wrangel to General Eduard Totleben, apologising for his activity in several utopian circles. As a result, he obtained the right to publish books and to marry, although he remained under police surveillance for the rest of his life. Maria married Dostoevsky in Kuznetsk on 7 February 1857, even though she had initially refused his marriage proposal, stating that they were not meant for each other and that his poor financial situation precluded marriage. Their family life was unhappy and she found it difficult to cope with his seizures. Describing their relationship, he wrote: “Because of her strange, suspicious and fantastic character, we were definitely not happy together, but we could not stop loving each other; and the more unhappy we were, the more attached to each other we became”. They mostly lived apart.[64] In 1859 he was released from military service because of deteriorating health and was granted permission to return to European Russia, first to Tver, where he met his brother for the first time in ten years, and then to St Petersburg.[65][66]

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Dostoevsky in Paris, 1863

The short story “A Little Hero” (Dostoevsky’s only work completed in prison) appeared in a journal, but “Uncle’s Dream” and “The Village of Stepanchikovo” were not published until 1860. Notes from the House of the Dead was released in Russky Mir (Russian World) in September 1860. Humiliated and Insulted was published in the new Vremya magazine,[c] which had been created with the help of funds from his brother’s cigarette factory.[68][69][70]

Dostoevsky travelled to western Europe for the first time on 7 June 1862, visiting Cologne, Berlin, Dresden, Wiesbaden, Belgium, and Paris. In London, he met Herzen and visited the Crystal Palace. He travelled with Nikolay Strakhov through Switzerland and several North Italian cities, including Turin, Livorno, and Florence. He recorded his impressions of those trips in the essay “Winter Notes on Summer Impressions”, in which he also criticised capitalism, social modernisation, materialism, Catholicism and Protestantism.[71][72] Dostoevsky viewed the Crystal Palace as a monument to soulless modern society, the myth of progress, and the worship of empty materialism.[73]

From August to October 1863, Dostoevsky made another trip to western Europe. He met his second love, Polina Suslova, in Paris and lost nearly all his money gambling in Wiesbaden and Baden-Baden. In 1864 his wife Maria and his brother Mikhail died, and Dostoevsky became the lone parent of his stepson Pasha and the sole supporter of his brother’s family. The failure of Epoch, the magazine he had founded with Mikhail after the suppression of Vremya, worsened his financial situation, although the continued help of his relatives and friends averted bankruptcy.[74][75]

Second marriage and honeymoon (1866–1871)[edit]

The first two parts of Crime and Punishment were published in January and February 1866 in the periodical The Russian Messenger,[76] attracting at least 500 new subscribers to the magazine.[77]

Dostoevsky returned to Saint Petersburg in mid-September and promised his editor, Fyodor Stellovsky, that he would complete The Gambler, a short novel focused on gambling addiction, by November, although he had not yet begun writing it. One of Dostoevsky’s friends, Aleksandr Milyukov, advised him to hire a secretary. Dostoevsky contacted stenographer Pavel Olkhin from Saint Petersburg, who recommended his pupil, the twenty-year-old Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina. Her shorthand helped Dostoevsky to complete The Gambler on 30 October, after 26 days’ work.[78][79] She remarked that Dostoevsky was of average height but always tried to carry himself erect. “He had light brown, slightly reddish hair, he used some hair conditioner, and he combed his hair in a diligent way … his eyes, they were different: one was dark brown; in the other, the pupil was so big that you could not see its color, [this was caused by an injury]. The strangeness of his eyes gave Dostoyevsky some mysterious appearance. His face was pale, and it looked unhealthy.”[80]

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Memorial plaque to Dostoevsky in Baden-Baden

On 15 February 1867 Dostoevsky married Snitkina in Trinity Cathedral, Saint Petersburg. The 7,000 rubles he had earned from Crime and Punishment did not cover their debts, forcing Anna to sell her valuables. On 14 April 1867, they began a delayed honeymoon in Germany with the money gained from the sale. They stayed in Berlin and visited the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, where he sought inspiration for his writing. They continued their trip through Germany, visiting Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Heidelberg and Karlsruhe. They spent five weeks in Baden-Baden, where Dostoevsky had a quarrel with Turgenev and again lost much money at the roulette table.[81] At one point, his wife was reportedly forced to pawn her underwear.[82] The couple travelled on to Geneva.[83]

In September 1867, Dostoevsky began work on The Idiot, and after a prolonged planning process that bore little resemblance to the published novel, he eventually managed to write the first 100 pages in only 23 days; the serialisation began in The Russian Messenger in January 1868.

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Plaque for baby Sofya

Their first child, Sofya, had been conceived in Baden-Baden, and was born in Geneva on 5 March 1868. The baby died of pneumonia three months later, and Anna recalled how Dostoevsky “wept and sobbed like a woman in despair”.[84] Sofya was buried at the Cimetière des Rois (Cemetery of Kings), which is considered the Genevan Panthéon. The grave was later dissolved but in 1986 the International Dostoevsky Society donated a commemorative plaque.[85]

The couple moved from Geneva to Vevey and then to Milan before continuing to Florence. The Idiot was completed there in January 1869, the final part appearing in The Russian Messenger in February 1869.[86][87] Anna gave birth to their second daughter, Lyubov, on 26 September 1869 in Dresden. In April 1871, Dostoevsky made a final visit to a gambling hall in Wiesbaden. Anna claimed that he stopped gambling after the birth of their second daughter, but this is a subject of debate.[d]

After hearing news that the socialist revolutionary group “People’s Vengeance” had murdered one of its own members, Ivan Ivanov, on 21 November 1869, Dostoevsky began writing Demons.[90] In 1871, Dostoevsky and Anna travelled by train to Berlin. During the trip, he burnt several manuscripts, including those of The Idiot, because he was concerned about potential problems with customs. The family arrived in Saint Petersburg on 8 July, marking the end of a honeymoon (originally planned for three months) that had lasted over four years.[91][92]

Back in Russia (1871–1875)[edit]

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Dostoevsky (left) in the Haymarket, 21/22 March 1874

Back in Russia in July 1871, the family was again in financial trouble and had to sell their remaining possessions. Their son Fyodor was born on 16 July, and they moved to an apartment near the Institute of Technology soon after. They hoped to cancel their large debts by selling their rental house in Peski, but difficulties with the tenant resulted in a relatively low selling price, and disputes with their creditors continued. Anna proposed that they raise money on her husband’s copyrights and negotiate with the creditors to pay off their debts in installments.[93][94]

Dostoevsky revived his friendships with Maykov and Strakhov and made new acquaintances, including church politician Terty Filipov and the brothers Vsevolod and Vladimir Solovyov. Konstantin Pobedonostsev, future Imperial High Commissioner of the Most Holy Synod, influenced Dostoevsky’s political progression to conservatism. Around early 1872 the family spent several months in Staraya Russa, a town known for its mineral spa. Dostoevsky’s work was delayed when Anna’s sister Maria Svatkovskaya died on 1 May 1872, from either typhus or malaria,[95] and Anna developed an abscess on her throat.[93][96]

The family returned to St Petersburg in September. Demons was finished on 26 November and released in January 1873 by the “Dostoevsky Publishing Company”, which was founded by Dostoevsky and his wife. Although they accepted only cash payments and the bookshop was in their own apartment, the business was successful, and they sold around 3,000 copies of Demons. Anna managed the finances. Dostoevsky proposed that they establish a new periodical, which would be called A Writer’s Diary and would include a collection of essays, but funds were lacking, and the Diary was published in Vladimir Meshchersky’s The Citizen, beginning on 1 January, in return for a salary of 3,000 rubles per year. In the summer of 1873, Anna returned to Staraya Russa with the children, while Dostoevsky stayed in St Petersburg to continue with his Diary.[97][98]

In March 1874, Dostoevsky left The Citizen because of the stressful work and interference from the Russian bureaucracy. In his fifteen months with The Citizen, he had been taken to court twice: on 11 June 1873 for citing the words of Prince Meshchersky without permission, and again on 23 March 1874. Dostoevsky offered to sell a new novel he had not yet begun to write to The Russian Messenger, but the magazine refused. Nikolay Nekrasov suggested that he publish A Writer’s Diary in Notes of the Fatherland; he would receive 250 rubles for each printer’s sheet – 100 more than the text’s publication in The Russian Messenger would have earned. Dostoevsky accepted. As his health began to decline, he consulted several doctors in St Petersburg and was advised to take a cure outside Russia. Around July, he reached Ems and consulted a physician, who diagnosed him with acute catarrh. During his stay he began The Adolescent. He returned to Saint Petersburg in late July.[99][100]

Anna proposed that they spend the winter in Staraya Russa to allow Dostoevsky to rest, although doctors had suggested a second visit to Ems because his health had previously improved there. On 10 August 1875 his son Alexey was born in Staraya Russa, and in mid-September the family returned to Saint Petersburg. Dostoevsky finished The Adolescent at the end of 1875, although passages of it had been serialised in Notes of the Fatherland since January. The Adolescent chronicles the life of Arkady Dolgoruky, the illegitimate child of the landowner Versilov and a peasant mother. It deals primarily with the relationship between father and son, which became a frequent theme in Dostoevsky’s subsequent works.[101][102]

From

NLS/BARD/LOC:

The double: two versions DB29347

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor; Harden, Evelyn J. Reading time: 12 hours, 4 minutes.

Read by Noah Siegel.

Classics

This novel is widely considered to be one of the most profound fictional portrayals of pathological disturbance in European literature. It is the story of a humble civil servant who, out of poverty, humiliation, and solitude, gradually loses his mind and becomes obsessed with a strange figure that appears as an exact double of himself. First published in 1846.

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Kate’s 2¢: Broken wings” by Virginia C. Andrews

“Broken wings” by Virginia C. Andrews

“

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Michele Schaeffer did a good job of narrating the sad and disturbing stories of these three teenage girls.

   Their tales of wanting love, recognition, and a host of other acknowledgments, resonated with me. They were looking in all of the wrong places and dug themselves deeper into depression, self-loathing, and exile.

   I’m looking forward to reading the sequel, in hopes of finding out if they work on redemption and self-worth.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

vcandrewsbooks.com

Cleo Virginia Andrews (June 6, 1923 – December 19, 1986), better known as V. C. Andrews or Virginia C. Andrews, was an American novelist. She was best known for her 1979 novel Flowers in the Attic, which inspired two movie adaptations and four sequels. While her novels are not classified by her publisher as Young Adult, their young protagonists have made them popular among teenagers for decades. After her death in 1986, a ghostwriter who was initially hired to complete two unfinished works has continued to publish books under her name.

Profile[edit]

Andrews’s novels combine Gothic horror and family saga, revolving around family secrets and incestual, forbidden love (frequently involving themes of horrific events, and sometimes including a rags-to-riches story). Her best-known novel is the bestseller Flowers in the Attic (1979), a tale of four children smuggled into the attic of their wealthy estranged pious grandmother, and held prisoner there by their mother.

Her novels were successful enough that following Andrews’s death, her estate hired a ghost writer, Andrew Neiderman, to continue to write novels to be published under her name.[1] In assessing a deficiency in her estate tax returns, the Internal Revenue Service argued (successfully) that Virginia Andrews’s name was a valuable commercial asset, the value of which should be included in her gross estate.[2]

Her novels have been translated into Czech, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Greek, Finnish, Hungarian, Swedish, Polish, Portuguese, Lithuanian, Chinese, Russian and Hebrew.

Life[edit]

Andrews was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, the youngest child and only daughter of Lillian Lilnora (Parker), a telephone operator, and William Henry Andrews, a tool-and-die maker.[3] She had two older brothers, William Jr. and Eugene. Andrews grew up attending Southern Baptist and Methodist churches.[4] As a teenager, Andrews suffered a fall from a school stairwell, resulting in severe back injuries. The subsequent surgery to correct these injuries resulted in Andrews’ suffering from crippling arthritis that required her to use crutches and a wheelchair for much of her life.[1] However, having always shown promise as an artist, she was able to complete a four-year correspondence course from her home and soon became a successful commercial artist, illustrator, and portrait painter, using her art commissions to support the family after her father’s death in 1957.[5]

Later in life, Andrews turned to writing. Her first novel, written in 1972 and titled Gods of Green Mountain, was a science fiction effort that remained unpublished during her lifetime but was eventually released as an e-book in 2004.[6]

In 1975, Andrews completed a manuscript for a novel she called Flowers in the Attic. “I wrote it in two weeks,” Andrews said.[7] The novel was returned with the suggestion that she “spice up” and expand the story. In later interviews, Andrews claims to have made the necessary revisions in a single night. The novel, published in 1979, was an instant popular success, reaching the top of the bestseller lists in only two weeks. Every year thereafter until her death, Andrews published a new novel, each publication earning Andrews larger advances and a growing popular readership.

“I think I tell a whopping good story. And I don’t drift away from it a great deal into descriptive material,” she stated in Faces of Fear in 1985. “When I read, if a book doesn’t hold my interest in what’s going to happen next, I put it down and don’t finish it. So I’m not going to let anybody put one of my books down and not finish it. My stuff is a very fast read.” In an interview for Twilight Magazine in 1983, Andrews was questioned about the critics’ response to her work. She answered, “I don’t care what the critics say. I used to, until I found out that most critics are would-be writers who are just jealous because I’m getting published and they aren’t. I also don’t think that anybody cares about what they say. Nor should they care.”[7]

Andrews died of breast cancer on December 19, 1986, in Virginia Beach, Virginia.[8] After her death, her family hired a ghostwriter, Andrew Neiderman, to finish the manuscripts she had started. He would complete the next two novels, Garden of Shadows and Fallen Hearts, and they were published soon after. These two novels are considered the last to bear the “V. C. Andrews” name and to be almost completely written by Andrews herself.

FROM nls/bard/loc:

Broken wings DB59081

Andrews, V. C, (Virginia C.). Reading time: 11 hours, 12 minutes.

Read by Michele Schaeffer.

Psychological Fiction

Three teenage girls share their stories of dysfunction and crime. Robin finds trouble in Nashville with her negligent mother. Teal is a rich girl who will do anything to get her parents’ attention. Phoebe makes a risky attempt to fit in. Descriptions of sex. 2003.

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