TMoP - Chapter one - Core Characters

[Richard Ryan]

By the end of Chapter One ("Petersburg") of The Master of Petersburg, we've met the four of the characters who will be crucial to this story - namely:

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky - 47, already a famous writer at the time of TMoP.  The historical Dostoevsky would have by this point published much of his greatest work, including Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, and The Idiot (this last appearing in the year in which TMoP is set.)  For those who know the details of the historical Dostoevsky's biography, Coetzee immediately begins leaving clues that the novel's Dostoevsky is emphatically NOT to be identified with his "real world" counterpart.  Most significant of these biographical divergences is the fact that the historical Doestoevsky's stepson outlived the novelist.     

Pavel Alexandrovich Isaev -  Dostoevsky's deceased stepson.  Dead under mysterious circumstances, though the possibility of suicide is strongly implied.

Anna Sergeyevna Kolenkina - Mid 30s, Pavel's landlady at his final residence, 63 Svechnoi Street in the Haymarket district of St. Petersburg.

Matryona ("Matroyosha") - Anna Sergeyevna's daughter.