Dostoevsky+Background

Dostoevsky grew up with a father who was stern and self-righteous, while his mother was passive, kind, and generous.

His father was a retired military surgeon and a violent alcoholic. The hospital he worked at was in one of the worst parts of Moscow. Fyodor would spend time in the hospital garden and listen to stories the patients would tell.

When his father was home, he would take a nap while the kids stand still and swat flies that would fly around near him.

His mother died in 1837 from tuberculosis. His father died in 1839 allegedly from his own serfs (servants) drowning him with vodka.

Dosteoevsky went to St. Petersburg Academy of Military Engineering. He was taught mathematics, which he didn't like, and studied literature by Shakespeare, Pascal, Victor Hugo, and E.T.A. Hoffmann.

__Crime and Punishment__ was written in a hurry so that he could have a pay advance from the publisher. This was because he was a gambler that, at the time of writing the book, had become penniless and poor.