SOURCE: Noble, Andrew A. J. “Dostoevsky's Anti-Utopianism.” In The Victorians and Social Protest: A Symposium, edited by John Butt and I. F. Clarke, pp. 133-55. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1973.

In the following essay, Noble discusses Fyodor Dostoevsky's strong condemnation of bourgeois society in his writings.

Few, if any, writers equal Dostoevsky's capacity to combine the powers of the historical, social and religious thinker with the more personal and aesthetic creativity of the novelist. No one, not even the Henry James of The Bostonians, wherein we find themes very similar to those discussed in this [essay], approaches his ability to fuse together in the creative act both of these elements. Consequently, my intention is to discuss Dostoevsky's achievement as a diarist and essayist in the hope that this will be enlightening to those who, while aware of his great fictional powers are, perhaps, less conscious of the depth, penetration...