In early life, this great Russian writer produced his first book in the form of letters. It was written with the idealistic charm and delicate beauty which characterized all of his writings officially. Dostoievsky was not a revolutionist. In the opinion of the speaker, he is the greatest of all psychologists, the greatest of all novelists. Inspired by pain, and one might almost say insanity. Dostoievsky is in many relations like Shakespeare. There is a certain lurid imagination, a certain element of pessimism that Shakespeare also had. It is the eternal protest against the eternal cruelty of the system of things.

In the author's account in "The House of the Dead" of the Russian prison, where the shadow of fear is spread upon his pages, one thinks Dostoievsky supremely has the power of physiological horror. He was led with other prisoners—the vilest criminals of the country, as well as political prisoners, in the dreadful prison house of Siberia, tortured and beaten, and yet the speaker stated the Russian attitude toward criminals is more scientific and more Christian than our own. Given the genius of the man, given his epilepsy, he lived, so to speak, the brink of a precilice, and drew inspiration from the sea of humanity which washed in such great waxes.  Against his life.
Mr. Powys drew a splendid comparison between the philosophy and teachings of Nietzsche and Dostoievsky. 