Summer in Baden-Baden

Published 20 years after the death of its author, SUMMER IN BADEN-BADEN begins in the form of a memoir: the narrator is traveling by train to the famed Black Forest spa, and en route he is reading the account by Dostoevsky`s wife, Anna, of their years together. Simultaneously, it tells the story of the writer`s marriage, and of the months in 1867 he and Anna, who was pregnant, spent in Baden-Baden, where Dostoevsky wrote, gambled, drank, and agonized over the direction his work was taking. Interwoven with these two stories are disquisitions on the characters in Dostoevsky`s novels, his friends, and his anti-Semitism. Introduction by Susan Sontag. A New York Times Notable Book for 2002. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.