Alberto Castelli is a writer and Professor of Humanities at Hainan University, China.

"Alberto Castelli’s study of Dostoevsky, as powerful as it is insightful, guides us down into the depths of Dostoevsky’s vision of the human condition. Good, evil, choice, God, self-identity, redemption, the darker recesses of human psychology, and the struggles of the soul all weave together here as Castelli intricately interprets and articulates Dostoevsky’s message. Castelli, a brilliant reader of philosophical literature, is here determined to show how literature possesses the capacity to reveal what he calls “the intimacy of the soul”, and to bring to light why this “dark abyss is capable of immense beauty.” Throughout this volume we encounter existentialist themes, the Underground Man as a prisoner of his own imagination, Dostoevsky and Kierkegaard in a contrapuntal dialogue, the autobiographical connections in Dostoevsky’s writings, the idea of the internal double, and the meaning-shaping political interconnections in Dostoevsky’s thought. An absorbing study of deep human significance."--Garry L. Hagberg, Author of Living in Words: Literature, Autobiographical Language, and the Composition of Selfhood

• Chapter 1. The Underground Man in El Amor BrujoChapter 2. Life on the Threshold of ModernismChapter 3. Prisoners of LifeChapter 4. If God Does Not ExistChapter 5. The Dream of a Ridiculous Man: Prophet or Madman?Chapter 6. Crime and Punishment: A Case for AgapeChapter 7. A Love That Kills: The IdiotEpilogue

Alberto Castelli is a writer and Professor of Humanities at Hainan University, China.

"Alberto Castelli’s study of Dostoevsky, as powerful as it is insightful, guides us down into the depths of Dostoevsky’s vision of the human condition. Good, evil, choice, God, self-identity, redemption, the darker recesses of human psychology, and the struggles of the soul all weave together here as Castelli intricately interprets and articulates Dostoevsky’s message. Castelli, a brilliant reader of philosophical literature, is here determined to show how literature possesses the capacity to reveal what he calls “the intimacy of the soul”, and to bring to light why this “dark abyss is capable of immense beauty.” Throughout this volume we encounter existentialist themes, the Underground Man as a prisoner of his own imagination, Dostoevsky and Kierkegaard in a contrapuntal dialogue, the autobiographical connections in Dostoevsky’s writings, the idea of the internal double, and the meaning-shaping political interconnections in Dostoevsky’s thought. An absorbing study of deep human significance."--Garry L. Hagberg, Author of Living in Words: Literature, Autobiographical Language, and the Composition of Selfhood

• Chapter 1. The Underground Man in El Amor BrujoChapter 2. Life on the Threshold of ModernismChapter 3. Prisoners of LifeChapter 4. If God Does Not ExistChapter 5. The Dream of a Ridiculous Man: Prophet or Madman?Chapter 6. Crime and Punishment: A Case for AgapeChapter 7. A Love That Kills: The IdiotEpilogue

Alberto Castelli is a writer and Professor of Humanities at Hainan University, China.

"Alberto Castelli’s study of Dostoevsky, as powerful as it is insightful, guides us down into the depths of Dostoevsky’s vision of the human condition. Good, evil, choice, God, self-identity, redemption, the darker recesses of human psychology, and the struggles of the soul all weave together here as Castelli intricately interprets and articulates Dostoevsky’s message. Castelli, a brilliant reader of philosophical literature, is here determined to show how literature possesses the capacity to reveal what he calls “the intimacy of the soul”, and to bring to light why this “dark abyss is capable of immense beauty.” Throughout this volume we encounter existentialist themes, the Underground Man as a prisoner of his own imagination, Dostoevsky and Kierkegaard in a contrapuntal dialogue, the autobiographical connections in Dostoevsky’s writings, the idea of the internal double, and the meaning-shaping political interconnections in Dostoevsky’s thought. An absorbing study of deep human significance."--Garry L. Hagberg, Author of Living in Words: Literature, Autobiographical Language, and the Composition of Selfhood

• Chapter 1. The Underground Man in El Amor BrujoChapter 2. Life on the Threshold of ModernismChapter 3. Prisoners of LifeChapter 4. If God Does Not ExistChapter 5. The Dream of a Ridiculous Man: Prophet or Madman?Chapter 6. Crime and Punishment: A Case for AgapeChapter 7. A Love That Kills: The IdiotEpilogue