Plot Introduction
Narrated by a young author, Vanya, who has just released his first novel which bears an obvious resemblance to Dostoyevsky's own first novel, Poor Folk, it consists of two gradually converging subplots. One deals with Vanya's close friend and former love object, Natasha, who has left her family to live with her new lover, Alyosha. Alyosha is the saintly but dimwitted son of Prince Valkovsky, who hopes to gain financially by marrying Alyosha off to an heiress, Katya. Valkovsky's cruel machinations to break up Alyosha and Natasha make him one of the most memorable "predatory types" (like Stavrogin in The Possessed) that Dostoyevsky created. The other branch of the plot deals with the approximately 13-year old orphan Nellie, whom Vanya saves from an abusive household by taking her into his apartment, and whose deceased mother's story in some ways parallels that of Natasha. It's unusual to see a well-developed character as young as Nellie in a Dostoyevsky novel, but Nellie may be one of his most moving creations, and she in particular shows the influence of Dickens (Dostoyevsky is known to have read Dickens during the Siberian exile; this novel was conceived near the end of this exile).
One of the most important themes throughout Dostoyevsky's work is the expiative value of suffering, and The Insulted and Injured, with its tragically moving plot and characters, develops that theme.
Read more about this topic: Humiliated And Insulted
Famous quotes containing the words plot and/or introduction:
“Morality for the novelist is expressed not so much in the choice of subject matter as in the plot of the narrative, which is perhaps why in our morally bewildered time novelists have often been timid about plot.”
—Jane Rule (b. 1931)
“My objection to Liberalism is this—that it is the introduction into the practical business of life of the highest kind—namely, politics—of philosophical ideas instead of political principles.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)