Fyodor Dostoyevsky

‘He received his first education from his father and mother and private instructors.  Later he was placed in a very good boarding-school in Moscow.  Here the boy, who had shown a passionate  fondness for books, read a great deal, especially tales of travel, and the novels of Sir Walter Scott and the works of the Russian poet, Pushkin. …’

The text above comes from Thomas Seltzer’s  introduction to Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s first novel “Poor People”.   It illustrates Walter Scott’s importance to and influence on Russian writers of the generation immediately following Scott.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky died on February 9, 1881.