Most discussions of sexuality in the work of Dostoevsky have been framed in Freudian terms. But Dostoevsky himself wrote from a decidedly pre-Freudian perspective. By looking at the views of human sexual development that were available in Dostoevsky's time, Fusso gives us a new way of understanding a critical element in the writing of one of Russia's literary masters. Fusso also explores his artistic treatment of how children and adolescents discover sexuality.