---
product_id: 806909396
title: "Notes from a Dead House (Vintage Classics)"
price: "NZ$28"
currency: NZD
in_stock: false
reviews_count: 10
url: https://www.desertcart.nz/products/806909396-notes-from-a-dead-house-vintage-classics
store_origin: NZ
region: New Zealand
---

# Notes from a Dead House (Vintage Classics)

**Price:** NZ$28
**Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Notes from a Dead House (Vintage Classics)
- **How much does it cost?** NZ$28 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Currently out of stock
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.nz](https://www.desertcart.nz/products/806909396-notes-from-a-dead-house-vintage-classics)

## Best For

- Customers looking for quality international products

## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

From the acclaimed translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky comes a new translation of the first great prison memoir: Fyodor Dostoevsky’s fictionalized account of his life-changing penal servitude in Siberia. In 1849 Dostoevsky was sentenced to four years at hard labor in a Siberian prison camp for his participation in a utopian socialist discussion group. The account he wrote after his release, based on notes he smuggled out, was the first book to reveal life inside the Russian penal system. The book not only brought him fame but also founded the tradition of Russian prison writing. Notes from a Dead House (sometimes translated as The House of the Dead ) is filled with vivid details of brutal punishments, shocking conditions, feuds and betrayals, and the psychological effects of the loss of freedom, but it also describes moments of comedy and acts of kindness. There are grotesque bathhouse and hospital scenes that seem to have come straight from Dante’s Inferno , alongside daring escape attempts, doomed acts of defiance, and a theatrical Christmas celebration that draws the entire community together in a temporary suspension of their grim reality. To get past government censors, Dostoevsky made his narrator a common-law criminal rather than a political prisoner, but the perspective is unmistakably his own. His incarceration was a transformative experience that nourished all his later works, particularly Crime and Punishment . Dostoevsky’s narrator discovers that even among the most debased criminals there are strong and beautiful souls. His story reveals the prison as a tragedy both for the inmates and for Russia; it is, finally, a profound meditation on freedom: “The prisoner himself knows that he is a prisoner; but no brands, no fetters will make him forget that he is a human being.”

Review: A phenomenal book. - It felt like witnessing the birth of the genius we now know as Dostoevsky.
Review: Good quality as in publication. - The font could have been some what bigger to make it easy on eyes. I find myself not qualified to comment upon Dostoevsky's work. He has given so much to humankind in form of his writings.

## Features

- Screen Reading Supported

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #236,242 in Kindle Store ( See Top 100 in Kindle Store ) #1,108 in Anthologies (Books) #3,051 in Classic Fiction (Books) #3,148 in Anthologies (Kindle Store) |

## Images

![Notes from a Dead House (Vintage Classics) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71sHHJJMsAL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A phenomenal book.
*by S***H on 22 December 2024*

It felt like witnessing the birth of the genius we now know as Dostoevsky.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Good quality as in publication.
*by A***R on 13 March 2022*

The font could have been some what bigger to make it easy on eyes. I find myself not qualified to comment upon Dostoevsky's work. He has given so much to humankind in form of his writings.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Translated by richard peaver and larissa volokhonsky
*by S***I on 6 January 2025*

Good quality book .paper is white. Cover could be more attractive

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*Product available on Desertcart New Zealand*
*Store origin: NZ*
*Last updated: 2026-06-02*