A review by cpcabaniss
White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky

4.0

"It has grown dark in the room; his soul is sad and empty; the whole kingdom of fancies drops to pieces about him, drops to pieces without a trace, without a sound, floats away like a dream, and he cannot himself remember what he was dreaming."

This was an odd reading experience. It's short, less than a hundred pages, and I read it over a few days. When I finished I said it was ok, but weird. As I was flipping back through it and jotting down some quotes I had enjoyed, I realized I liked it much more than I thought.

Our first person narrator is a lonely dreamer who wanders the streets of Petersburg, watching its people and places but never really becoming a part of life. Then his path crosses that of a young woman and the two become friends.

I was less interested in the woman's story in this, mostly because I think I was in the mood for our narrator's angsty melancholy and philosophizing. As with the other Dostoevsky I've read, this gave me questions to ponder and ideas to consider.

I'm not sure this is the best introduction to Dostoevsky, but if you want to try his stuff without committing to a larger, more complex novel, this might be a good one to grab.

I read the Constance Garnett translation. I tend to find her translations very readable.