Love and Marriage

Though Dostoevsky held dear the belief that love could redeem all wrongs, he had yet to put this theory into practice in his private life. His first marriage had been unhappy, and his several love affairs had not been successful. But the tide was about to turn.

In October of 1866, Dostoevsky found himself running behind on a contract to produce a novel. Failure to produce the novel on time would have dire financial consequences, as Dostoevsky had promised to deliver to his publisher, free of charge, anything he would write in the next nine years should he fail to meet his contract. He had but a few weeks to produce the novel, and he had not yet written a word. He went to a good friend of his to ask what he should do, and the friend suggested that Dostoevsky hire a stenographer in order to speed up the writing process. Two days later, Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina appeared, ready for work. Together, the two of them managed to produce the novel in question (The Gambler) before the deadline. Despite their age differences (she was twenty, he was forty-four) they also managed to fall in love. Dostoevsky asked her to marry him before the novel had been entirely dictated.

The proposal was a literary one. Afraid of rejection, Dostoevsky at first disguised his proposal as a plot for a new novel. He told Anna that his character was a writer, middle-aged, sick, and tormented, who has fallen in love with a young girl. He asked Anna if she thought it psychologically plausible that this young girl might return the old man's love. Anna replied that she thought it was possible. Her reply gave Dostoevsky the courage to come to the point:

"Imagine," he said, "that the artist is - me; that I have confessed my love for you and asked you to be my wife. Tell me, what would you answer?" Anna Grigoyevna understood, from the inner torment manifest in Dostoevsky's countenance, that "if I gave him an evasive answer I would deal a deathblow to his self-esteem and pride. I looked at his troubled face, which had become so dear to me, and said, "I would answer that I love you and will love you all my life."
[Joseph Frank, The Miraculous Years (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995) 167]

They were married a few months later, in February 1867.

From the start, the marriage was marked by difficulties. At their wedding reception, Dostoevsky had too much champagne and had a terrifying epileptic seizure. The episode was severe: Dostoevsky screamed in pain for hours. When the screaming subsided, he was incoherent and seemed "mad." Not a good introduction to married life for his young bride. Still, Anna acted well: she took Dostoevsky's head in her lap and held it as he convulsed. Dostoevsky would later tell her that he was terrified of dying during one of his attacks. From then on, Anna would stay with him regardless of his condition, sometimes sitting on the sofa near his bed for days.

In addition to the health problems were Dostoevsky's financial woes. Creditors were pursuing Dostoevsky mercilessly, trying to collect on promissory notes that he had no hope of paying. Collectors began to pester Anna herself, even before the marriage, threatening to take property from her. Here Anna proved herself a shrewd financial presence in Dostoevsky's life. She stood up to the creditors and determined to find a way to afford a trip abroad. She sacrificed her dowry and pawned everything she owned in order to get herself and her husband out of Russia. In April, 1867, the Dostoevskys left Russia for Europe, intending to visit for a few months. In the end, they would stay away for four years.

Read on: The Years in Europe

[Brothers Karamazov Home | Reading | Discussing | Researching | Writing | Teaching | The Man and His Times]
Copyright @ Dartmouth College. Last site update April 9, 2003. E-mail comments to the site editor.
This page written by Karen Gocsik.