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Dostoevsky in English translation

I decided to post a list of links to English translations of Dostoevsky’s works, partly because someone suggested it would useful, partly to have an overview what’s available and in how many versions, and also so that I can find the links when I need them – for original Russian texts, lib.ru has everything except most of Dostoevsky’s correspondence, so one rarely needs to look further, but translations are a bit more scattered, and even the most complete collection – the University of Adelaide Ebooks series – does not have everything that is available. I’ve included links to everything I could find, giving multiple versions because different formats may be useful for different things, and you never know whether some may disappear. Most of the translations available on-line are Constance Garnett’s, but there are also a few versions by other people, including Fred Whishaw and Marie von Thilo – I’ve used * in the separate works lists to indicates those that are not by Garnett, but I may have missed a few, and there are a couple where I’m not 100% sure whose version it is.

It comes as no surprise to discover that Crime and Punishment is available on the largest number of websites, but it is perhaps more surprising that this is the only text available in a dual language version – I would have thought the internet was ideal for presenting side-by-side texts, and it would be really useful for students. Let’s hope someone takes the hint and we see more parallel texts in future. At the other end of the scale, there were a few stories that were proving rather elusive, including a couple of my favourites, A Nasty Story and Another Man’s Wife and a Husband Under the Bed, but I did eventually manage to track them down in a collection on Archive.org (translated as An Unpleasant Predicament and Another Man’s Wife – managing to turn possibly the best story title ever into something quite mundane!), while The Landlady (definitely not a favourite) eventually turned up in two different collections, with Garnett’s version of The Gambler and Hogarth’s version of Notes from Underground.

There is, on the other hand, hardly any of Dostoevsky’s non-fictional work available, which is a great pity, because it deserves a wider readership than it usually gets. There is a Google books preview of Winter Notes on Summer Impressions, but not the complete text. There’s very little of his journalism, because very little of it has been translated. The only bits of Diary of a Writer that are available are the short stories and one slim volume that features a couple of pieces, while from the earlier period I particularly regret the absence of his brilliant Petersburg feuilletons. On the other hand, there are two early volumes of letters and reminiscences, which I wasn’t really expecting to find. So I think there’s enough to keep most people going. I hope other people will find the list useful, and if you do come across any versions I’ve not included – particularly if you find any more of the non-fiction – please let me know and I’ll update.

[Note: As ebooks@Adelaide was taken off line early in 2020, the links to those books have been redirected to the Wayback Machine’s mirror of December 2019.]

Pre-exile works

Poor Folk Ebooks@Adelaide | Literature Network | Project Gutenberg | Archive.org

The Double Ebooks@Adelaide | Eserver Collection | Literature Network

White Nights Ebooks@Adelaide

Mr Prokharchin Ebooks@Adelaide

A Faint Heart Ebooks@Adelaide

Polzunkov Ebooks@Adelaide

A Little Hero Ebooks@Adelaide

A Christmas Tree and a Wedding Ebooks@Adelaide | Literature Network

Works of the 1860s

Insulted and Injured Ebooks@Adelaide | Eserver Collection (incomplete) | Literature Network |Archive.org* | other

House of the Dead, or Prison Life in Siberia Project Gutenberg | Archive.org | Free Fiction Books| Archive.org [2]*

Uncle’s Dream Ebooks@Adelaide

The Permanent Husband Ebooks@Adelaide

The Crocodile Ebooks@Adelaide | Eserver Collection | Literature Network

Notes from Underground Ebooks@Adelaide | Eserver Collection | Literature Network | Project Gutenberg | Archive.org | Free Fiction Books

Crime and Punishment Ebooks@Adelaide | Eserver Collection | Literature Network | Archive.org | dual language version | Free Fiction Books | other

The Gambler Ebooks@Adelaide | Literature Network | Project Gutenberg | Free Fiction Books*

The Idiot Ebooks@Adelaide | Literature Network | Project Gutenberg | Archive.org* | The Free Library | Free Fiction Books*

Works of the 1870s

The Possessed Ebooks@Adelaide | Literature Network | Project Gutenberg | Free Fiction Books

A Raw Youth Ebooks@Adelaide | Archive.org

Bobok Ebooks@Adelaide | Literature Network | About.com

A Gentle Spirit Ebooks@Adelaide | Eserver Collection | Literature Network

The Little Orphan (A Little Boy at Christ’s Christmas Tree) Literature Network | other

The Dream of a Ridiculous Man Ebooks@Adelaide | Literature Network

The Brothers Karamazov Ebooks@Adelaide | Eserver Collection | Literature Network | Project Gutenberg | Archive.org | Free Fiction Books | other

Collections

Short stories by Fiodor Dostoievski [includes An Honest Thief, A Novel in Nine Letters, An Unpleasant Predicament, Another Man’s Wife, The Peasant Marey, and others]

The Novels of Dostoevsky: Nyetochka Nyezvanov [sic] and The Friend of the Family (The Village of Stepanchikovo and its Inhabitants)

The Friend of the Family, and The Gambler

Poor Folk and The Gambler

The Gambler and Other Stories [includes Poor People and The Landlady]

Letters from the Underworld, trans. C. J. Hogarth [includes A Gentle Maiden (A Gentle Spirit) and The Landlady]

Uncle’s Dream and the Permanent Husband, trans. Fred Whishaw

Pages from the Journal of an Author, trans. S. Koteliansky and J. Middleton Murry (1916), including the speech delivered at the Pushkin Memorial on 8th June 1880

White Nights and Other Stories (also on Free Fiction Books)

Correspondence & reminiscences

Letters of Fyodor Michailovitch Dostoevsky to his family and friends, trans. Ethel Colburn Mayne (1914)

Dostoevsky: Letters and Reminiscences, trans. S. Koteliansky and J. Middleton Murry (1923), including selections from Anna Grigorevna Dostoevskaya’s reminiscences.