Watch Gary Saul Morson and Jacob Howland Discuss the Dostoevsky Problem

In this month’s feature Mosaic essay, the literary scholar Gary Saul Morson argues that the great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky presents a conundrum:

On the one hand, he was the great writer of compassion for all who suffer. On the other, he became, toward the end of his life, an extreme anti-Semite. So the first question is: how was it possible for these two impulses to cohere in the same consciousness, and how did Dostoevsky reconcile them?

There are few writers with as much psychological depth, or literary brilliance, which is why his anti-Semitism is so troubling, both in itself and as an example of a larger phenomenon. Today one can find many well-intentioned people, some with prestigious credentials, who support the oppressed and the downtrodden, but as soon as the conversation turns to the Jews, their compassion gives way.