"No work in modern literature, with the possible exception of Uncle Tom's Cabin, can compete with What Is to Be Done? in its effect on human lives and its power to make history. For Chernyshevsky's novel, far more than Marx's Capital, supplied the emotional dynamic that eventual…
Michael R. Katz (Russian, U. of Texas, Austin) has translated the socialist classic and provided a long introduction with Wm. G. Wagner (history and Russian, Williams College). Wagner has provided annotations to allusions, references, intellectual sources, and has done the criti…
"Nikolai Chernyshevskii and Ayn Rand: Russian Nihilism Travels to America argues that the core commitments of the 1860's nihilism made their way to 20th century America via the thought of Ayn Rand. Nikolai Chernyshevskii's What is to Be Done? (1863) and Rand's Atlas Shrugged (19…
"Nikolai Chernyshevskii and Ayn Rand: Russian Nihilism Travels to America argues that the core commitments of the 1860's nihilism made their way to 20th century America via the thought of Ayn Rand. Nikolai Chernyshevskii's What is to Be Done? (1863) and Rand's Atlas Shrugged (19…
Introduction: on the dubious virtue of selfishness -- Radicalizing Dostoevsky -- "The most atrocious work of Russian literature" -- Dostoevsky reborn -- Rigor mortus, or waiting for Rakhmetov -- Fire in the minds of men -- Rakhmetov lives! -- The vengeance of the muse -- In the …
Literary history meets economic policy in this entertaining polemic on the ethical and potentially destructive power of terrible literature. --Publisher. "Literature can be used to disseminate ideas with devastating real-life consequences. In How Bad Writing Destroyed the World…