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Poor Folk and Other Early Stories
ByPublisher Description
A new translation of Poor Folk, the debut novella that first brought the author of Crime and Punishment fame at the age of twenty-five, along with his other early stories, all showcasing the concern for human dignity that animated his later work.
The short novel Poor Folk portrays the passionate relationship between two young distant cousins, a clerk and a seamstress who live across the street from each other in conditions of dire poverty. Through an exchange of letters, they share with each other their struggles, their past tragedies, their mutual love of literature, and their growing hopes for a future together—until a rich man proposes to the young woman and offers her a path to a different life, leaving her cousin behind.
The other stories in the collection—"Mister Prokharchin," "Another Man’s Wife and a Husband Under the Bed," "White Nights," and "Uncle’s Dream"—display a remarkable variety of narrative voices. Combining satiric comedy with weightier themes, these early tales reveal their author already exercising the formal inventiveness he became so well known for.
The short novel Poor Folk portrays the passionate relationship between two young distant cousins, a clerk and a seamstress who live across the street from each other in conditions of dire poverty. Through an exchange of letters, they share with each other their struggles, their past tragedies, their mutual love of literature, and their growing hopes for a future together—until a rich man proposes to the young woman and offers her a path to a different life, leaving her cousin behind.
The other stories in the collection—"Mister Prokharchin," "Another Man’s Wife and a Husband Under the Bed," "White Nights," and "Uncle’s Dream"—display a remarkable variety of narrative voices. Combining satiric comedy with weightier themes, these early tales reveal their author already exercising the formal inventiveness he became so well known for.
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About Fyodor Dostoevsky
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY (1821–1881) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, and journalist, and author of Crime and Punishment, Demons, Notes from Underground, and The Brothers Karamazov.
About the Translators: RICHARD PEVEAR and LARISSA VOLOKHONSKY have translated works by Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Gogol, Bulgakov, Leskov, and Pasternak. They were twice awarded the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize (for Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina). They are married and live in France.
About the Translators: RICHARD PEVEAR and LARISSA VOLOKHONSKY have translated works by Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Gogol, Bulgakov, Leskov, and Pasternak. They were twice awarded the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize (for Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina). They are married and live in France.
Other books by Fyodor Dostoevsky
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