moonlight_dreamer 's review for:

Les nuits blanches by Fyodor Dostoevsky

4.5

emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Immerse yourself in the worlf of Dostoevsky with this short story sets in St. Petersburg.

A lonely man (a nameless narator) meets accidentaly a young desperate girl (Nastenka), fantasizing about the day her lover would came back to marry her. A pact between this lonely man and this young girl will be made: they will meet at night, telling their story, their loneliness, and their hope.

It's a story about the desire to love someone, the need to be loved but not only. It reflects the unfortunate way a lot of people have been taught to not express what we feel deep inside. But together, the narator and Nastenka will explore their disarray, discover love that they never recieved. 

I like the way he writes differently depending on whether it's the man telling his story or when it's the girl. When you read the narrator's point of view, you can feel how depressed and lonely he is. He is a true overthinker. Whereas when Nastenka, speaks, telling her story, it's lighter, more naive. It's an other kind of solitude, the solitude of a dreamer, of a romantic dreamer.

 
I read this short novel years ago, and it was my first reading of Dostoevsky, which led me to read his other novels, to discover the Russia of his century and to be more curious about Russian literature. I really enjoyed to read again White Nights and I can reconfirm this short story is a precious gem. 

If you are afraid to start Dostoevsky literature then you should start with White Nights.