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The Master of Petersburg
J.M. Coetzee Book Review

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Plot Summary of The Master of Petersburg
"The main character, 19th Century author Fyodor Dostoyevski, travels from his exile back to St. Petersburg to understand the death of his son Pavel. Fyodor's feelings and memoirs about his son come in the middle of a political conflict, to which he's dragged and in which his son might have been involved."
Augusto Wong Campos, Resident Scholar

Review Analysis of The Master of Petersburg
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - very sensitive (sigh)
Time/era of story - 19th century
Internal struggle/realization? Yes
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Coping with loss of loved one(s) Yes
Loss of... - child/children

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - artist
Age: - 40's-50's
Eccentric/Mental Yes
Eccentric: - obsessed
Ethnicity/Nationality - Russian
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters
Physique - healthy but a geeky weakling

Main Adversary
Profession/status: - mastermind
Eccentric/Smart/Dumb: Yes
Eccentric: - obsessed - wild - emotionally unstable
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount
How sensitive is this character? - mean, arrogant
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 5 (an average amount)
Misc setting - sewers/subways

Style
Person - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - descript of kissing - touching of anatomy - licking
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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Click here for more information about this book


J.M. Coetzee Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Augusto Wong Campos  

SCHOLARS:
Marta Garay  Stephanie   Jack Goodstein  Deidre Woollard  


Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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