Books: Love Life of a Genius

THREE LOVES OF DOSTOEVSKY (300 pp.)—Marc Slonim—Rinehart ($4).

"Note Dostoevsky's helplessness when confronted with love," said Freud. "He understands either coarse animal desire or masochistic submission, or else love out of pity." In his readable, reasonable, slice-of-love-life study of the great Russian novelist, Author Slonim, Russian-born teacher and critic, documents this Freudian analysis in detail. Avoiding sweeping generalizations, Slonim suggests that some of the grit in the oyster of Dostoevsky's genius was put there by women.

Sweet Tea in Siberia. As a youngster, Fyodor was never allowed out with girls, and at his first...

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