The great 19th Century Russian master Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) remains one of the most influential novelists today, as his works are still extensively read, studied, analyzed and commented upon all around the world.

The Dostoyevsky Complete Works is the natural result of Open Books' passion for Russian literature, a passion showcased by the more than 100 Russian titles that are currently part of its catalogue. The Dostoyevsky Complete Works is the fruit of many years of ambitious planning, skillful translating, and careful editing all aimed at delivering the best set of the finest translations of Dostoyevsky's works. This collection is also the very first Korean Dostoyevsky collection translated directly from the Russian.

The project began in the early 1990's when Open Books already had a strong catalogue of Russian literature and planned to add Dostoyevsky's works to it, not only his most famous masterpieces Crime & Punishment or The Brothers Karamazov but also his less known works. More than 20 professors specializing in Russian language and literature took part in the translation process, which started in 1994. It took six years of meticulous labor comparing the original texts and the many existing translations and more than 7 phases of correcting, proofreading and editing before the 24 volumes of the collection were ready for publication. The result of these efforts is a new authoritative collection of high-quality, original translations of which Open Books is very proud.

In addition to the first edition, which featured a blue cover design (the 24-volume "blue edition"), Open Books published a newly edited and redesigned collection in 18 volumes (the "red edition") in 2002 and another 18-volume edition in paperback in 2007.

Open Books' editions of Crime & Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov were reprinted more than 70 times.