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The House of the Dead is a Semi-autobiographical novel published in 1860 to 1862 in the journal Vremya by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It has also been published in English under the titles Notes from the House of the Dead, Memoirs from the House of the Dead and Notes from a Dead House, which are more literal translations of the Russian title.The author uses autofiction to be able to use facts, fiction and to discuss topics that have happened to him while he was imprisoned. The primitive conditions and horrifying episodes in the prison camp mirror the author's own exile in such a camp for four years in 1849. The novel focuses on the exploration of the Russian character, mostly depicted in times of trouble and hardship. The themes of crime, punishment and isolation run potent in this haunting novel where the reader has to suffer and endure the arduous path through the house of the dead in order to be born again into freedom.