6 h 8 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can you give someone you love when you barely have enough to live?
Across a courtyard in St. Petersburg, two neighbors put their lives into letters. Makar Devushkin is a shy, proud copy clerk. Varvara Dobroselova, whom he calls Varenka, is a young orphan who longs for safety. He gives her more than he can spare; she fears becoming a burden.
Through one spring and summer, their letters carry money worries, small joys and old wounds. In Poor Folk, Fyodor Dostoyevsky brings you close to people who struggle not only to survive, but to keep their dignity. A gift, a worn coat or a borrowed book can expose the painful distance between how they see themselves and how others see them.
What you’ll discover
- Two voices drawing close Follow Makar and Varenka through letters that reveal what each hopes, fears and needs.
- Kindness at a cost Feel the weight of small gifts when Makar has almost nothing left to give.
- The sting of shame See how a worn coat becomes bound up with Makar's longing for respect.
- A past still hurting Read Varenka's account of her earlier life, where old troubles shape her fears.
- Books between neighbors Join their conversations about reading, where stories meet the need to be understood.
Who will love it
For readers who love intimate, voice-driven stories and care about how money and shame shape ordinary lives, or who want to see where Dostoyevsky began.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Two neighbors who write instead of talk
- Small gifts that cost too much
- Varenka's notebook of a painful past
- Pride, shame and the worn out coat
- Books, mockery and being seen
- How the letters build a world
Who’s who
- Makar DevushkinA middle aged copy clerk, shy and proud, who gives Varenka all he can spare and more, and who longs to be treated as a person.
- Varvara DobroselovaCalled Varenka, a young orphan and distant relative of Makar, intelligent and watchful, who wants safety and fears becoming a burden.
- PokrovskyA poor student from Varenka's past, awkward and proud, who shapes her early years in St. Petersburg.
- Anna FyodorovnaA relative who takes Varenka and her mother into her household and treats Varenka as a source of profit.
- BykovA wealthy landowner linked to Varenka's past, whose presence still troubles her.
- GorshkovA fellow lodger in Makar's house, crushed by a lawsuit and the needs of his family.
- RataziaevA neighbor who writes for a living, mocked and half admired by Makar for his place in the literary world.
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Pobres gentes
by Fiódor Dostoyevski · 1846
A poor clerk and a young woman share letters, small gifts and money worries as they fight to preserve their dignity.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Poor Folk is the first novel of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, published in 1846 when he was in his mid twenties. He had been working as a military engineer and gave it up to write.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two neighbors who write instead of talk
The story opens with a letter from Makar Devushkin to Varenka. They live in the same part of St. Petersburg, in buildings that face each other across a courtyard. Yet they hardly ever meet in person. Makar fears that gossip will harm Varenka's name if the two are seen together too often. So they send letters, carried back and forth by servants and neighbors.
Makar is a copy clerk in a government office. His work is to write out documents by hand, line after line, day after day. He is no longer young, and he has little hope of rising. Varenka is a distant relative, a young orphan who has no family left to rely on. He has taken on the role of her protector, though he has almost nothing to protect her with.
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What is Poor Folk about?
It follows Makar Devushkin, a poor copy clerk, and Varenka, a young woman in need, as they write to each other in St. Petersburg. Their letters show their friendship, money troubles and fear of shame.
Why is Poor Folk written as letters?
The letter form lets each character speak in a personal voice. Readers learn what they hide as well as what they say, and see poverty from the inside rather than through a narrator.
When was Poor Folk written and published?
Dostoyevsky published it in 1846. It was his first novel and was praised by critics such as Belinsky. It is fiction, though based on the real social conditions of Petersburg.
The author
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
1821–1881 · Russian novelist
Fyodor Dostoyevsky was a Russian novelist born in Moscow in 1821. He lived in Saint Petersburg and spent years in Siberia after his arrest in 1849. He wrote Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1868–1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880). He died in Saint Petersburg in 1881.
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