'Jacques Catteau's massive book is a distinguished contribution to Dostoyevsky studies, and a work that no future student of the subject will be able to neglect.' Joseph Frank, Slavic and East European Journal

• Preface to the English edition; List of abbreviations; General editor's note on transliteration and references; General introduction; Part I. The Creative Environment: Introduction; 1. Forms of creativity in embryo; 2. The heritage; 3. The heritage: literature; 4. The heritage: history and philosophy; 5. Illness; 6. Money; Part II. The Process of Creation: Introduction; 7. The writer at work; 8. The great dialogue: the news item; 9. The great dialogue: migrant images; 10. The play of dialogue; 11. The unity of thought in the novel; 12. The summit of creative interrogation: 'The Life of a Great Sinner'; 13. A Raw Youth: reasons for choice; 14. A Raw Youth: the appearance of the vision; 15. A Raw Youth: the human architecture; 16. A Raw Youth: the idea of the novel; 17. The composition of the novel in Dostoyevsky's work: choice of chronicle form; 18. Composition of the novel in A Raw Youth: chronicle and stories; Part III. Time and Space in the World of the Novels: Introduction; 19. The master of men and hours; 20. Chronology and temporality in The Idiot; 21. The ascending spiral; 22. Time of power and power of time; 23. The heavens of eternity; 24. The dream of space and the space of the real; 25. The inventory and the expressionist orchestration of scenery and lighting; 26. The semantics of colour; 27. The hero in space: sighting and seeing; Conclusion; Notes; Select bibliography; Index of names.