"Humiliated and Insulted" was the first major work that Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) wrote following his eight-year exile in Siberia. The novel was published in 1861 in the St. Petersburg monthly magazine Wremja. It is an excellently written sentimental tale of futile, destructive love affairs that are entangled in social hierarchy, the power of money, and the hopelessness of poverty. Selfless love, pride, and the inescapable misery of the defenseless and helpless inhabitants of St. Petersburg evoke a sense of hopeless sorrow in readers. Only together, and only in the awareness of their own moral dignity, can the poor find strength. This constant stirring of pain and the indulgence in it was entirely understandable to me; after all, it is a pleasure for many who feel insulted and wronged.