experience

”The Aspern Papers” is one of the masterpieces of the writer’s „small” prose, the plots of which are based on the collision of European and American cultural consciousness, the „point of view” of an individual and social stereotypes, the „book” perception of the world and individual experience. The tragicomic search by the hapless biographer of the lost letters of the great poet is the conflict of...

What makes this work so unusual is that it tries to mimic the format of a legal report covering a fictional trial of Pickwick, who is accused of breaking a promise to marry his mistress. In a large number of quotes from the source text, Fitzgerald explains some of the factual materials. Having some experience in legal matters, Fitzgerald can also indicate where Dickens’ knowledge of the British legal...

Aleksandr Petrovich lives through a spiritual re-awakening that culminates with his release from the prison camp. The narrator has been sentenced to penalty deportation to Siberia and ten years of hard labor for murdering his wife. Published in 1861, „House of the Dead” is a semi-autobiographical work based upon Dostoevsky’s exile to Siberia where he was punished with „hard labor” after he was initially...