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Work #1573 · Late

The Adolescent

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
1874-1875 · Russian
Novel (Bildungsroman) · Russian realism / Orthodox-Christian existential novel

Dostoevsky's 1875 novel 'The Adolescent' — fatherhood, money, and the search for an 'idea'

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute The Adolescent (Late)
Time · Extent Both
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Implicit
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Implicit
Matter · Extent Finite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Implicit
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Immediate
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Active
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Personal
Observer · Moral Authority Revelation
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Finite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Implicit

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

The Adolescent

1874-75 composition; serialised 1875; book 1876. Dostoevsky was 54.

Space

The Adolescent

St Petersburg — the novel's setting, and Dostoevsky's residence during composition. The geographical-cultural space is the post-emancipation, post-1860s-reform Russian capital, with its mix of impoverished gentry, rising bourgeoisie, and revolutionary student-intelligentsia.

Matter

The Adolescent

Long novel in three parts (~600 pages in modern editions). Form is first-person retrospective narration: the older Arkady looking back on the events of his nineteenth year.

Observer

The Adolescent

Late Dostoevsky. The observer-novelist is the established author of Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and Demons, working toward the final synthesis of The Brothers Karamazov.

Energy

The Adolescent

Late-novelistic energies. The novel combines Dostoevsky's characteristic philosophical-religious thematics with the technical experiment of sustained first-person narration by a young, unreliable narrator.

Information

The Adolescent

Three-part novel. The Makar Dolgoruky sections (Part III) introduce one of Dostoevsky's most explicit Russian-Orthodox-spiritual figures.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

The Adolescent

Dostoevsky's fourth great novel — less famous than the surrounding three but a major Bildungsroman. Often the least-discussed of the major novels in Anglophone scholarship; the Makar Dolgoruky figure has been continuously cited as anticipating Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov.