221: Dostoevsky & the Murderer Who Inspired Crime & Punishment w/ Kevin Birmingham

Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky lived a fascinating and turbulent life. He served a sentence in a Siberian prison camp and suffered from depression and a gambling addiction that kept him destitute for years. But through these challenges he wrote some of the greatest fiction of the 19th century, including his masterpiece "Crime and Punishment". Dostoevsky drew inspiration for the novel from a series of murders committed in Paris by Pierre Lacenaire, a failed poet and aspiring master criminal in 1834.

My guest, New York Times bestselling author Kevin Birmingham, is the author of "The Sinner and the Saint: Dostoevsky and the Gentleman Murderer Who Inspired a Masterpiece". He talks about the tortured, brilliant soul who penned the literary classic, despite the difficult odds against him.

Kevin Birmingham's website: http://www.kevinbirmingham.net/

His publisher's author page: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/238375/kevin-birmingham/

Become a Most Notorious patron: https://www.patreon.com/mostnotorious

Most Notorious website: https://www.mostnotorious.com/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices