13 h 58 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 13 h 58 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens to a person who is never alone and never free?
Behind a fence of pointed logs, Alexander Petrovich Goryanchikov enters a world of crowded barracks, plank beds and forced labor. This invented nobleman narrates Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The House of the Dead: Or, Prison Life in Siberia, an account rooted in the author’s own experience of hard labor at Omsk.
Rather than follow a driving plot, Dostoyevsky builds a patient series of sketches: work gangs, hidden coins, punishments, holidays and the men who share them. Thieves, murderers, soldiers and peasants live side by side. Through their daily struggles, he asks what punishment takes from a person—and what it cannot erase.
What you’ll discover
- Life behind the fence Enter wooden barracks where men sleep shoulder to shoulder and solitude becomes an impossible wish.
- The need to choose Explore the difference between forced labor and chosen work, and why that difference matters.
- Small claims to freedom Follow hidden coins into boots and clothing seams, where forbidden money offers something of one’s own.
- A break in the gloom Discover holidays and a prison play that interrupt the work and weight of confinement.
- Men beyond their crimes Meet prisoners whose individual lives resist easy judgment, sustained by dreams of freedom and home.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who love true accounts of life in extreme places, who enjoy sharp portraits of strange and ordinary people, and who want to see where Dostoyevsky's moral questions began.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A dead exile leaves a secret manuscript
- The prison is a house of living dead
- Convicts show pride but almost no repentance
- Forced labor crushes and money buys freedom
- A gentleman remains a stranger among convicts
- Small kindnesses reveal faces behind the brands
- Christmas and a play give the prison breath
- The hospital shows the rods and their masters
- Spring, animals and escape feed the longing
- A year of change leads toward freedom
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet or computer, once the book texts are online.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, once the book texts are online.
- Audiobook
- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 14 minutes, to read today.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
Every printed copy is made when you order it and shipped worldwide; shipping is shown at checkout. The eBook and the audiobook open when the book texts go online.
How it works
- Start free. Nothing to pay today; the eBook of this book is yours to keep.
- Read, listen and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook, audiobook and 15-minute summary, and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print, 5 accounts for the price of one.
- We remind you first. Free for 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment. Then 0,14 USD a day in your first year on the yearly plan and 0,27 USD a day after, or 0,66 USD a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
Bought on its own? Every eBook, audiobook and printed book you buy without the plan carries our 30-day money-back guarantee.
25 languages, side by side
Das Totenhaus oder: Gefängnisleben in Sibirien in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Das Totenhaus oder: Gefängnisleben in Sibirien
by Fjodor Dostojewski · 1860
A gentleman in irons learns to live among convicts in a Siberian prison fortress.
Medium level5–10 hours to read2 languages
Learn a language with medium classicsSpanischFranzösischDeutschItalienischJapanischPortugiesischEnglischHow we measure levels
Excellent
Free for 3 months · starts right away, on any device
Read free3 months free · cancel anytimeFree for 3 months, then 0,14 USD a dayCancel anytimeHow it works
- Read or listen
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- 5 accounts for the price of one
In short
What would it be like to live behind a wooden palisade for ten years and never once be alone? That is the daily fact of The House of the Dead, Fyodor Dostoyevsky's account of life in a Siberian convict prison.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A dead exile leaves a secret manuscript
The book opens in a small Siberian town. There the narrator meets a quiet teacher, Alexander Petrovitch, who gives French lessons. He is pale and thin, and he weighs every word. Everyone knows he killed his wife out of jealousy and served ten years of hard labor.
The narrator is drawn to him and cannot say why. A month later he visits the man's lodging and finds him teaching a dying woman's little girl to read. When he returns after three months, the teacher is dead. The landlady sells him a basket of his papers for twenty kopecks.
Free for 3 months · Cancel anytime
You looked at
Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1860
- Language
- Deutsch
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. The House of the Dead: Or, Prison Life in Siberia. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-house-of-the-dead-or-prison-life-in-siberia.
Dostoyevsky, F. (2026). The house of the dead: Or, prison life in Siberia. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-house-of-the-dead-or-prison-life-in-siberia (Original work published 1860)
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. The House of the Dead: Or, Prison Life in Siberia. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-house-of-the-dead-or-prison-life-in-siberia.
@book{dostoyevsky2026house,
author = {Dostoyevsky, Fyodor},
title = {The House of the Dead: Or, Prison Life in Siberia},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-house-of-the-dead-or-prison-life-in-siberia},
note = {First published 1860}
}
Free gifts
580 USD in free gifts when you start
Every book in every format and in 25 languages, 5 accounts for the price of one. Nothing to pay today.
- 200,000+ classic eBooksIn 25 languages, side by side
170 USDFREE - Every audiobookIn 25 languages, any device
120 USDFREE - 15-minute summariesRead or listen, in 25 languages
60 USDFREE - Print at cost, no markupPaperback, hardcover, large print
60 USDFREE - 5 accounts for the price of oneA shelf for everyone at home
170 USDFREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
Questions about Das Totenhaus oder: Gefängnisleben in Sibirien
Can I read it free?
Yes. The first key idea of the 15-minute summary is free with no sign-up. Start free and the whole book is yours for 3 months, with the eBook to keep, plus 200,000+ more classics and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print. Nothing to pay today: we email you 7 days before your first payment, and you can cancel online in two clicks.
Can I buy the printed book?
Soon. The paperback, hardcover and large print editions are being prepared. Choose Paperback or Hardcover above, leave your email, and we tell you the day you can order it, printed at cost.
How many accounts do I get?
Five, for the price of one: you and 4 more people, each with their own login, shelf and their own place in every book.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel online in two clicks at any time and nothing more is charged. Nothing is charged in your first 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment.
What is The House of the Dead about?
It is an account of life in a Siberian convict prison, told by Alexander Petrovitch, a nobleman who spends ten years there. It follows daily life, work, trade, punishment, holidays and hopes of freedom, and it draws portraits of many prisoners.
Is The House of the Dead a true story?
It is a novel drawn from Dostoyevsky's own years in a Siberian prison, framed as a memoir discovered among a dead exile's papers by another narrator. Many scenes reflect real conditions and people.
Who is Alexander Petrovitch Goriantchikoff?
He is the fictional narrator, a nobleman who killed his wife and served ten years of hard labor. After release he lives quietly as a tutor in a Siberian town and dies, leaving behind the manuscript that forms the book.
The author
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
1821–1881 · Russian novelist
Fyodor Dostoyevsky was a Russian novelist born in Moscow in 1821. He lived in Saint Petersburg and spent years in Siberia after his arrest in 1849. He wrote Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1868–1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880). He died in Saint Petersburg in 1881.
More by Fjodor Dostojewski
Alle Bücher des Autors ansehenMore like this
Our mission
The library burned once. We are building it back.
Every great book, in every language and every format, for every family. Every plan helps pay for new languages, new audiobooks and books for readers who have never had them. Join the movement.
Read our story- Every language25 languages today, side by side, and more every year
- No wastePrinted on demand: no warehouses, no unsold stock, no pulped copies
- For everyonePaperback, hardcover and large print at the cost of printing
