TMoP - Chapter one - Core Characters

[Richard Fiero]

Richard Ryan wrote:
>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:
>
>. . . 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. . .

I'm confused. Certainly the Dostoevsky of TMoP is as alienated as any 
of the real world Dostoevsky's characters and in the very same 
ways.  Difference that I can see is that TMoP is not a tragedy since 
the main character is renewed through art.