"A fine guide, especially recommended for students....Provide[s]
concise overviews.... Makes an easily digested introduction."Bookwatch

"Succinct and easy-to-read synopsis of the unusual-even dysfunctional-life."
Foreword Magazine

After narrowly avoiding a firing squad when he was just twenty-eight years old,
Dostoevsky never took things lightly. His great novels burst upon the European
literary scene like a succession of thunderbolts. His understanding of the darker
and more extreme recesses of the human mind cast a forceful light into these
areas of experience. The raw psychology and passionate involvement of his books
galvanized writers and thinkers as disparate as Nietzsche and Kafka.

In Dostoevsky in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of
Dostoevsky's life and ideas, and explains their influence on literature and on man's
struggle to understand his place in the world. The book also includes selections from
Dostoevsky's writings, a list of his chief works in English translation, a chronology of
Dostoevsky's life and times, and recommended reading for those who wish to push
further.

Paul Strathern earned a degree in philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin, and has lectured in philosophy and mathematics. A Somerset Maugham prize winner, he has written books on history, philosophy, and travel as well as five novels. His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including the Observer (London) and the Irish Times. He lives and writes in London.

Earphones Awards recipient Robert Whitfield was born in England and worked for the BBC for ten years as a radio news announcer and also worked as a narrator for the Royal National Institute for the Blind in London. In addition to narrating for Blackstone Audiobooks, he involves himself in numerous stage-acting projects in the United States and Europe.