A Russian writer, essayist and philosopher, known for his novels Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.
Dostoyevsky's literary output explores human psychology in the troubled political, social and spiritual context of 19th-century Russian society. Considered by many as a founder or precursor of 20th-century
existentialism, his Notes from Underground (1864), written in the embittered voice of the anonymous "underground man", was called by Walter Kaufmann the "best overture for
existentialism ever written."5 A prominent figure in world literature, Dostoyevsky is often acknowledged by critics as one of the greatest
psychologists in world literature.