Barsht, K. (2025). Dostoevsky’s graphic code: the writer’s drawings. Moscow; St. Petersburg: Nauka. (In Russ.)

Barsht examines Dostoevsky’s ‘graphic code,’ also referred to as ‘ideographic writing,’ tracing intricate connections between the writer’s drawings and texts in his books of preliminary drafts. Referred to as ‘handwritten books’ by their owner, these notebooks were prized by Dostoevsky above the final holographs. The study recreates the history of the writing of the short story The Crocodile [Krokodil] and five of the novels. The reader is immersed into Dostoevsky’s creative process, defined by two types of artistic thinking: verbal reflection and intrapersonal communication. Sketches of architecture, calligraphic writing, drawings, and portraits of future characters or real-life individuals reveal the various stages of the novelist’s work on a given text. The study, therefore, explores Dostoevsky’s creative process and sets out to recreate the very flow of his artistic thought. Photographs of selected pages from the writer’s notebooks illustrate and reinforce the scholar’s theses. Both flyleaves and sides of the book cover are also illustrated with extracts from Dostoevsky’s handwritten drafts.