The Life of a Great Sinner

[Radarflea]

I absolutely love The Brothers Karamazov, and have been trying to find out about Dostoevsky's plans for The Life of a Great Sinner. There, unfortunately, is not much information readily available. My question is where I can learn about this unwritten work. Are there any books or published notebooks that detail what Dostoevsky's ideas were?  Has anybody here read anything pertaining to The Life of a Great Sinner?

[carnage_complex]

"The Life Of a Great Sinner" was one of two long novel ideas that Dostoevsky considered in 1869-1870, shortly prior to the writing of "Demons."  The other novel was supposed to be entitled "Atheism," though very little is known about it.  "The Life Of a Great Sinner" was supposed to be about a reprehensible character who spent his life in a state of relentless egoism and sin against God.  The book would have chronicled his life.  Supposedly, Dostoevsky meant for him to become penitent in adulthood and seek out refuge in a monastery.  In fact, there is considerable reason to believe that the character of Father Zosima from Karamazov may well have been a summation of this Sinner protagonist.  In fact, the protagonist of "tLOaGS" later took on a life of its own and became Stavrogin.  Dostoevsky estimated that Life would have rivalled Tolstoy's "War and Peace" in approximate length, and that it would have taken 4-5 years to write.  Given the fact that he was still in exile at that point and required funds to get back to Russia, support his young family/dependents, and pay down his debts, he probably had no resources to take on such a project.

[carnage_complex]

By the way, other accounts tentatively apply this title to Dostoevsky's unwritten magnum opus which was supposed to be a sequel to "The Brothers Karamazov," though many scholars, like Joseph Frank, consider that book's working title to have been either "The Children" or "Atheism."  The two are often used interchangeably.