13 h 58 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 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 is for readers who love vivid portraits of real people, curious about Russian life, prison reform, or the way hope survives in a closed place.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A dead man's papers open the prison
- Prison is a world with its own rules
- Money, work and vodka keep men alive
- Cruelty and quarrels fill the barracks
- Individuals stand out from the crowd
- Holidays and the play give a glimpse of freedom
- Illness, flogging and the hospital reveal hidden things
- Animals, grievances and the longing for freedom
- Release and what the prison leaves behind
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 6 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.
Das Totenhaus oder: Gefängnisleben in Sibirien
by Fjodor Dostojewski · 1860
A nobleman in chains counts the days until his release and finds friends among thieves.
Medium level10–20 hours to readDeutsch
Excellent
- Read or listen
- Print and large print at cost
- 5 accounts for the price of one
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
In short
What does a man become when he lives ten years among two hundred and fifty convicts and is never alone for a single minute? Fyodor Dostoyevsky answers in The House of the Dead, a fictional memoir told by a nobleman who served his sentence in a Siberian fortress.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A dead man's papers open the prison
The book begins in a small Siberian town, where a narrator meets Alexander Petrovitch Goriantchikoff, a pale, silent exile who teaches children for a living. Goriantchikoff had been sentenced to ten years of hard labor for killing his wife. After his death, the narrator buys a basket of his papers and finds a bundle of notes about the prison, which the dead man called Recollections of the Dead House.
The frame lets the story come from a man who lived it. His landlady remembers his night walks and his love for a little girl, Katia. His own pages are fragmentary, with terrible memories set down as if torn from him.
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 6 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1860
- Language
- Deutsch
- Level
- Medium level
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 follows a nobleman serving ten years of hard labor in a Siberian fortress, describing the daily routines, the punishments, the friendships and the strange customs of the convicts around him.
Is The House of the Dead a true story?
It is presented as the papers of a fictional exile named Goriantchikoff, but it draws on Dostoyevsky's own years in a Siberian prison, so its scenes carry the weight of lived experience.
Who is Alexander Petrovitch?
He is the narrator, a nobleman sentenced to ten years of hard labor for murdering his wife. His notes, found after his death, make up the main body of 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
All 11 booksMore 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
