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“The Jack of Hearts Club” in F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel The Raw Youth

The article examines the criminal storyline in The Raw Youth by F. M. Dostoevsky as part of real-life and historical and literary commentary on the novel. The matter has significant links to the facts and persons associated with the “Kumanin inheritance case.” It turned out to be “unfortunate” and “haunted” because of the initial criminal background associated with the activities of the famous criminal community of the 1870s, namely, “The Jack of Hearts Club”. Among its members was Alexander Timofeevich Neofitov, the first executor of the will of A. F. Kumanina. We can presume that he became the prototype of the leader of the “gang,” which included Lambert, Stebelkov and other “cunning scammers” depicted in the novel. Vsevolod Alekseevich Dolgorukov, a prince and tradesman, was also one of the “red jacks,” which could have led Dostoevsky to endow the hero of his novel with a similar surname. The article provides new facts confirming that the typical features of V. A. Dolgorukov are reflected in the characteristics of the young prince Sokolsky. Secondly, two previously unrecognized literary sources of Dostoevsky’s work, namely, novels by the French writer Ponson du Terrail, The Jack of Hearts Club and Secrets of Paris, which were popular in Russia at that time. Their characters, Mrs. St. Alphonse, or Alfonsina, involved in scheming with incriminating papers, and Captain Lambert, depicted as the embodiment of all human vices, are the prototypes of the namesake heroes in Dostoevsky’s novel. All of the above made it possible to conclude that intentional artistic contamination of the historical and biographical narrative, criminal chronicle and literary tradition occurred in The Raw Youth.