Dostoyevsky Reads Hegel in Siberia and Bursts into Tears

“It is precisely Földényi’s approachable style, as well as Ottilie Mulzet’s impeccable translation, that makes this collection easily accessible to scholars and casual readers alike.”—Barbara Halla, Asymptote

“A collection of essays on why contemporary culture would do well to embrace transcendence. . . . Perceptive meditations on humanity’s need for spiritual nourishment.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Beneath the surface it is single-minded in its pursuit of a certain category of insight . . . Perhaps [this] essay collection is arriving in our language at just the right time.”—Robert Minto, On the Seawall

“Földényi has a knack for sustaining readers’ interest through the musicality of his prose and the variety of his references.”—John Toren, Rain Taxi

“Földényi’s brilliant essay on Dostoyevsky reading Hegel is an essential meditation on history, civic responsibility and our ongoing responsibility towards others.”—Alberto Manguel, author of A History of Reading

“It is a hallucinatory moment: Dostoyevsky, first condemned to death, then sent as a soldier to the endless emptiness of Siberia, where he reads Hegel’s thoughts about the abstract building of History, a building in which neither Siberia nor Africa can have a place, an unsentimental construction made of glass, with its holy ending the Weltgeist, in which all the personal suffering of mankind has disappeared. Laszlo Földenyi has written about this in such a way that you can feel the sacred shudder with him.”—Cees Nooteboom