(5) Dostoevsky's critical economic situation in the early years of his marriage - why did he remain poor forever?
Previous Article(4) An unusual proposal by the great writer Dostoevsky! Dostoevsky's big game, confessing his novelistic love to his wife Anna!"In the following section, I told the story of Dostoevsky and his wife Anna's happy union.
In this article, we will look at the economic issues that these two had to consider first as they started their new life together.
(2) Dostoevsky's Encounter with Madame Anna: Dictation of "The Gambler," Begun in Desperate Circumstances."As I mentioned in the article "Dostoevsky's brother Mikhail's sudden death and the subsequent bankruptcy of his company left Dostoevsky with a huge debt. However, after thatCrime and Punishment."He was still poor even though he had just sent the world a blockbuster movie called "The Greatest Movie of All Time". Why did he remain poor? Did he have a habit of spending too much money? Actually, no. There was a reason for this poor life.
Now, as usual, let's hear from Mrs. Anna.
The main and most important topic of conversation for both of them was, of course, their future married life.
Once married, I would never leave my husband, I would help him with his work, watch over his health, and protect him from those who persistently annoyed him, and when I thought that all of these things would soon be realized, I could almost burst into tears with happiness. (omitted).
Fyodor Mikhailovich kept me informed of his concerns. He did not try to hide anything, probably so that I would not be unduly burdened by their future life together, which was bound to be marked by poverty. I was very grateful for his candor, especially as I tried to brainstorm various ways to reduce his burdensome debts. As I soon found out, his current work situation did not allow him to pay off his debts. Even though I had lived in a privileged family and knew little about the realities of life, I could not help but notice a certain fact during the three months leading up to our marriage that completely baffled me. As soon as he had money, his brother, brother-in-law, son-in-law, and nephews all came to him with unexpected but urgent requests for money. Even if he received three or four hundred rubles from Moscow for "Crime and Punishment," the next day he would have only three or four hundred rubles left over, which he could barely use to pay the interest on the bill. So once again, he had to worry about how he was going to pay the interest and make enough money to support himself and fulfill the requests of his many relatives. Seeing him like this, I began to worry seriously. I thought to myself, "When I get married, I will take care of the family finances, and I will pay a certain amount of money a year to each of my relatives. My brother-in-law, Emiliya Fyodorovna, had large sons, who were already very reliable. Her brother Nikolai Mikhailovich was a talented architect who could work if he wanted to. Her son-in-law, now twenty-one, was old enough to get a serious job instead of relying on his sick and heavily indebted father-in-law.
When I saw that Fyodor Mikhailovich was constantly having to scrape for money, which was deteriorating his mental state and his health, I became angry with all these lazy people. His constant discomfort was so bad that his nerves were badly affected and he often suffered from epileptic seizures. It was like this for a long time, until I came into his life. But I dreamed that in our future life together, he would regain his full health and continue to feel happy and cheerful.
In addition, he was in debt and could not avoid submitting his works to various magazines, which naturally resulted in much lower fees than for writers such as Turgenev and Goncharov, who were not so strapped for cash. For example, Fyodor Mikhailovich received 150 rubles per printed page for "Crime and Punishment," while Turgenev received 500 rubles per page for the same novel in "Russian News.
Most regrettable of all, he was constantly pressed for work because of his ever-increasing debts. It was a great sadness for him that he did not have enough time to work on his novels. Critics often accused him of failing in form, of having several stories intertwined within a single novel, and of overlapping incidents that often left him short-changed. These noisy critics probably had no idea of the conditions under which he had to work. For example, the first three chapters of a long story had already been printed, the fourth was in typesetting, the fifth had just been mailed, the sixth was being written, and the rest of the story had not even been plotted. How many times afterwards have I seen him unexpectedly seized with deep despair, saying that the idyll he had cherished so much had been ruined and could not be undone?
Misuzu Shobo, Anna Dostoevskaya, translated by Hiroshi MatsushitaDostoevsky in Recollection."p100-103
Many of you may be surprised to read this. The moment Dostoevsky earned money, his relatives took most of it. This is not enough to pay off his debts.
But this may be a common pattern even today. It is especially common to hear of South American soccer players who, when they become successful in Europe, provide for their entire family. If someone in the family becomes a rising star, he or she takes care of the family. Dostoevsky was also trying to take care of his family in this way. (Although it is extremely annoying for the creditors who cannot pay back their debts.)
In his commentary at the end of "Dostoevsky in Retrospect," Yutaka Matsushita describes Dostoevsky's conception of family and economy as follows.
Another thing that stands out in Dostoevsky's life is his strong love for his family. His love for his mother, who died early in life, for his brother, for his siblings, for his second wife, the author of this memoir, and for the children he had in his later years, was almost like doting on them. In particular, he had special feelings for his older brother, who was only one generation removed from him. Together they tried to enter the literary world and succeeded to a certain extent. Both brothers had a kind of business desire, which was later realized through the founding of a magazine, in which the elder became a literary entrepreneur and the younger a creative writer, helping each other and supporting the other. Dostoevsky's feelings of annoyance and pampering toward his brother in the midst of his disappointment were extraordinary. He did more than his fair share for his unfortunate brother in Siberia, despite his own struggles in life. Dostoevsky later repaid this debt by taking care of the entire life of his bereaved family after his brother's sudden death. His willingness to take on this excessive burden to any extent was something that his second wife, who had nothing to do with the past, could not understand. Dostoevsky's pampering was not only a result of his pride in his talent, but also of his desire to demand the same goodness from others as he did from himself.
He was indeed a good human being. The idealized portrayal of Dostoevsky, "the sun of my life," in this memoir, was not entirely unfounded. He had a compassionate and determined side to him.
In his view of money, which is the most vivid expression of interpersonal relations, Dostoevsky was not modern by any stretch of the imagination. He took it for granted that those with money would help the poor, and if necessary, he would take whatever he could from those who had it. This was probably reflected in the fact that he tried to extract money from his rich relatives when he wanted to publish a magazine or a collection of his works. On the other hand, the author has written many times in this memoir that when people were in need, he would help them even if he had to borrow money if he did not have it. He had a spirit of Christian love, and charity was important to him. He had a spirit of Christian love, and almsgiving was important to him, but I believe that his financial views were supported by the fact that he went to great lengths to take care of his brother's family. Thus, his strong love for his family was also tied to poverty. His love for his family was motivated by a life of poverty and the spirit of mutual support.
Misuzu Shobo, Anna Dostoevskaya, translated by Hiroshi MatsushitaDostoevsky in Recollection 2."p273-274
It was because of these circumstances that Dostoevsky could not refuse a general request from his relatives.
It may be kindness, but it is still overkill. Dostoevsky was catastrophically bad at managing money, even as a young man. He was completely incapable of calculating how much money he had and how much he needed to make ends meet. He received one Fubon request after another. When he was asked to give money, he did as he was told without any calculation.
And even more unfortunately, he had done the same thing to a debt collector. The result was the slave contract that led to his meeting with Mrs. Anna. The result was the slave contract that led to his meeting with Mrs. Anna. If Mrs. Anna had not appeared at this point, he would have been ruined.
And as Mrs. Anna said, he gets less than half the price of Turgenev, Goncharov and others for his novels. The same is true of Tolstoy. While these great aristocrats were absorbed in creating their works at their leisure, Dostoevsky was writing novels like a madman in fear of debt collectors.
In a sense, one might say that this constantly driven environment was a major influence on his black-magic novels.
If only he had been financially able to afford to slow down and write his piece...
That is interesting in its own right, but there is a great possibility that perhaps he did not leave behind a masterpiece that will go down in history. I believe that one of the greatest attractions of Dostoevsky's novels is the chaos that pulls the reader in. It is that unique sense of speed, as if before you know it, you are caught up in a maelstrom of emotions. The flow of madness that seems to have been written in a single stroke, rather than being meticulously composed. It is difficult to say whether Dostoevsky could have maintained this.
Now, this was Dostoevsky's financial situation at the beginning of his marriage.
This financial problem is the biggest obstacle that stands in the way of his newlywed life with his wife Anna.
And as painful as it was for Mrs. Anna, there were still a number of barriers. In the next article, I will talk about epilepsy, a chronic illness that afflicted Dostoevsky for the rest of his life.
be unbroken
Next Article.
Click here to read the previous article.
Click here for a list of Dostoevsky's recommended books.
List of recommended Dostoevsky biographies."
List of recommended Dostoevsky commentaries.
A list of recommended commentaries on "Dostoevsky and Christianity."
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