Andrew D. Kaufman

Ambitious Anna Snitkina (1846-1918) started as the stenographer to the then-struggling author Fyodor Dostoevsky when she was a mere 19 years old. Their professional relationship soon turned to love, and they married. Through the years, they coped with jealousies, illness, the loss of children, and, perhaps most frustrating of all, Dostoevsky's self-destructive fixation with gambling. Despite all this, Anna remained staunchly by his side, and even remade herself into a steely businesswoman to protect her husband from unscrupulous publishers. During the long years after Dostoevsky's death in 1881, Anna devoted herself to burnishing his literary reputation.

Despite a few pacing problems and the occasional jarring use of modern expressions, author Andrew Kaufman does a good job of telling the story of this seemingly mismatched, but devoted couple. He made me want to attempt The Brothers Karamazov again, and that's saying something.… (altro)