9 h 9 minAudiobook7 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 happens when lonely dreamers, proud husbands, and ambitious officials are left alone with their thoughts?
In Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Short Stories, St Petersburg holds tender hopes and bitter absurdities. In White Nights, a solitary dreamer meets Nastenka, a young woman with a hope of her own. In A Christmas Tree and a Wedding, an observer at a wealthy household's children's party notices the cold workings of ambition.
Other tales lead into stranger, darker rooms. Bobok follows Ivan Ivanovich as he overhears the dead among the graves. The Crocodile turns an official's bizarre predicament into comedy. A Gentle Creature enters a husband's troubled thoughts, while The Dream of a Ridiculous Man introduces someone who no longer believes anything matters.
What you’ll discover
- The ache of loneliness Walk the pale summer evenings with a dreamer who longs for real company.
- Ambition beneath polite manners Watch a children's party reveal what a cynical observer notices beneath wealth and rank.
- Laughter in strange places Meet Ivan Matveich, swallowed by a crocodile yet beginning to dream of fame.
- Voices that unsettle Follow an uneasy writer among graves where even the dead have something to say.
- A mind confronting silence Listen as a proud pawnbroker struggles to understand his marriage beside his wife's body.
Is it for you?
This is for readers who want Dostoyevsky's moral and psychological force without committing to a thousand-page novel, and for anyone who likes short, sharp stories. If you want fast plots and clear heroes, the odd and inward tales here may feel less suited.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A lonely dreamer meets a girl on a bridge
- A party shows how cold ambition can be
- A man overhears the dead talking in a graveyard
- A man swallowed by a crocodile enjoys it
- A husband tries to understand a wife's silence
- What the stories share and how they are told
Who’s who
- The dreamer of White NightsA shy, solitary young man in St Petersburg who lives in imagined worlds and longs, without much hope, for real company.
- NastenkaA warm, quick young woman he meets by a canal, who is waiting on a hope of her own.
- Ivan MatveichA government official in The Crocodile who is swallowed by an animal on show and begins to dream of fame.
- The pawnbrokerThe proud, wounded husband in A Gentle Creature who tries to understand his marriage beside his wife's body.
- Ivan IvanovichThe uneasy writer in Bobok who overhears the dead talking among the graves.
- The ridiculous manA bitter man in The Dream of a Ridiculous Man who has stopped believing anything matters.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Short Stories
Lonely people struggle with money, pride, and the need for company.
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Language: English
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A lonely dreamer meets a girl on a bridge
In White Nights, a young man lives alone in St Petersburg, the city of pale summer evenings when the sun barely sets. He has no family worth naming and almost no friends. He fills his days with daydreams so rich that they feel more real to him than the streets he walks.
One night he sees a girl standing by a canal railing, crying. He does something very unusual for him. He speaks to her, and he keeps her safe from a stranger who is following her. She is called Nastenka, and she is young, lively and open.
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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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What are Dostoyevsky's short stories about?
They deal with lonely people, money and rank, guilt, pride and the longing to be understood. Settings are mostly St Petersburg, and many stories are told by a single restless voice that gives away more than it means to.
Which Dostoyevsky short story should I read first?
White Nights is the usual starting point. It is gentle, short and lyrical, and it shows his sympathy for lonely people. If you like humour, try The Crocodile or Bobok next.
Are Dostoyevsky's short stories hard to read?
They are easier than his long novels. The plots are small and the pages few. Some, like Bobok, are odd or satirical, and a few references to Russian life of the 1800s may need a little patience.
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