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Poor Folk

Written by: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, C. J. Hogarth - translator
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble, Julie Teal
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Publisher's Summary

Upon its first publication in 1846, "Poor Folk" was an immediate critical triumph. The influential critic Vissarion Belinsky wrote that "the novel reveals secrets about life and character-types in Russia of a kind never dreamt of by anyone else," and the unknown twenty-five-year-old author was hailed as "the new Gogol." Composed entirely of an exchange of letters between a middle-aged copy clerk and a young seamstress who live on opposite sides of a Petersburg tenement courtyard, the novel explores the emotional and psychological effects of a threatening urban environment on the psyches of poor people struggling to survive. "Poor Folk" is the natural beginning point for anyone who discovers Dostoevsky, and the present translation corrects numerous errors and inaccuracies of previous English language editions. The novel occupies a position of particular interest in both the history of Russian literature and Dostoevsky's work as a whole. Several lines of development in Russian prose interest: sentimentalism, naturalism, the physiological sketch, and the phenomenon of Gogol, with whom Dostoevsky maintains a dialogue throughout the novel.
Public Domain (P)2023 W. F. Howes Ltd
Psychological Classics
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Profile Image for Ben Vaughan

Good, interesting, and not overlong

This was my first foray into Dostoyevsky (I sought out his first novel because I plan on moving through his work chronologically) and it was quite good. The epistolary format tends to feel constrained and unsatisfying to me, but Dostoyevsky really did an impressive thing within it here. Certain scenes are quite moving, and the format allows us to notice changes in the male protagonist's views of others, of the world, of poetry, and of himself, which other formats would not. Not an all-time favourite book of mine, but a strong start into the Dostoyevsky bibliography. Oh, also, the reading - particularly that of the male reader - is superb.

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