Graphical peculiarities of Dostoevsky's manuscripts (based on the materials of the notebooks and workbooks of the years 1862-1865)

This publication describes the preliminary results of graphical analysis carried out basing on the materials of Dostoevsky's workbooks of the first half of the 1860s, namely his "second" and "third" notebooks as well as one of his workbooks composed along with the previous ones (The Manuscripts Department of the Russian State Library. Funds 93.I.2.7, 93.I.2.8; The Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts. Fund 212.1.3). Via concrete examples it is shown how a new database on Dostoevsky's writing can become an effective tool of the analysis of "difficult readings" in the writer’s autographs. The article considers the possibility of using two methods of representing the texts of Dostoevsky's notebooks in the graphic analysis of a particular group of records in these notebooks related to calculations and publishing activities of Dostoevsky. A comprehensive study of this little-studied group of records belonging to several notebooks kept at the same time allowed revealing some common features. The intermediate results of graphical analysis of the figures appeared in Dostoevsky's manuscripts are presented in the form of a table, complementing a similar hand lettering table compiled last year.