Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was a Russian novelist who was arrested at twenty-seven for belonging to a circle of liberal intellectuals, subjected to a mock execution, and sent to a Siberian prison camp for four years. The experience, along with epilepsy and a ruinous gambling habit, shaped the novels of his maturity: Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Demons and The Brothers Karamazov. He wrote several of them at speed against contractual deadlines.