Fyodor Dostoevsky was born in Moscow, the capital of Russia, on October 20, 1821. The son of a Russian family of moderate privilege and wealth, he was highly educated and raised in the Russian Orthodox religion. His father was a doctor and a member of the aristocracy, and his mother's family belonged to the merchant class. They had a house in town and a country estate with more than one hundred servants. Dostoevsky wrote in Russian, which has a different alphabet than English. Hence, his name may be spelled in English as Dostoevsky, Dostoevski, Dostoyevsky, among others, due to inconsistent transliteration and translation. His works also appear in English translation with slightly varying titles. As a child, Dostoevsky was an avid reader who hoped to become a professional writer one day. His first novel, Poor Folk (1846), was well received by the critics. It tells a story about poverty...