In his old age, Georg Lukacs all but disowned The Theory of the Novel. The book, he wrote, was" founded on a highly naive and totally unfound utopianism," a" romantic anti-capitalism" on which we" have every right smile"(Lukacs 1971, 12, 19-20). 1 Today the utopian outlook of The Theory of the Novel is indeed out-moded, yet it is an outlook shared by many important East Europea figures of the past, including Dostoevsky, whom the Lukacs of The Theo of the Novel describes as the world's consummate writer. Both Lukacs an Dostoevsky present utopia as an indispensable concept. Using The Broth ers Karamazov and the 1861 essay on" Mr.-bov and the Question of Art as examples, this essay will attempt to characterize the utopian world-vie that Lukacs identifies and condones in his commentary on Dostoevsky The Theory of the Novel.

This analysis will serve several purposes. The comparison of Lukacs an Dostoevsky sheds light on Lukacs' enigmatic statements, substantiating interpretation of Dostoevsky as well as clarifying the social theory of T Theory of the Novel and helping to distinguish it from Lukacs' later Mar ism. The comparison also illuminates the complicated relationship betwee Dostoevsky's avowed utopianism and the sordid realism of his fiction. I w begin with an account of The Theory of the Novel's statements on Dosto sky, then compare these statements with the" Mr.--bov" essay, and the proceed with a brief reading of utopian elements in The Brothers Karam zov before concluding with reflections on the merits of the utopian philoso-phy shared by young Lukacs and Dostoevsky.