“Популярный” Достоевский: Начало массового распространения творческого наследия, 1881–1906

Abstract

This paper provides the first detailed description of the initial phases of the wider circulation of Dostoevsky’s works, in the context of the enlargement of the reading audience and of the development of the book publishing industry in Russia at the turn of 19–20th centuries. Special attention is paid to A.G. Dostoevskaia’s editions of the Complete Works and to the adapted editions of Dostoevskii’s works addressed to specific segments of the Russian public, such as children and peasants. Alongside with statistical data on the diffusion of Dostoevskii’s works in the last two decades of the 19th century, the paper touches upon two aspects: on the one hand, publishers and pedagogues’ efforts to adapt Dostoevsky’s texts to half-educated readers of lower-middle classes, and on the other, readers’ reactions to them. The paper includes a large number of quotations from memoirs and sociological reports that testify how the new publishing formats and mechanisms of distribution of Dostoevskii’s works informed their circulation and reception.