6 h 8 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 6 h 8 minPaperback · 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
You will love this book if you enjoy intimate stories told in letters, warm characters who speak from the heart, and quiet scenes of old St. Petersburg.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A curtain carries a lonely hope
- Barbara remembers how security disappeared
- Shame opens the way to love
- A gift makes room for dignity
- Books touch Makar's pride
- Generosity turns into shared distress
- Respect matters as much as money
- Letters reveal feelings and conceal fears
- Small kindnesses hold fragile lives together
Who’s who
- Makar DievushkinAn aging copyist in a government office, proud, tender and always short of money, who spends everything he has on the young woman he calls his angel.
- Barbara DobroselovaA young, frail seamstress with a painful past, who wants only a safe place and refuses to be a burden on her friend.
- ThedoraBarbara's loyal, quarrelsome servant and companion, who finds her work and knows more than she says.
- RataziaevA neighbor and would-be author who hosts literary evenings and is admired by Makar for his flowery stories.
- GorshkovA ruined clerk in the same lodging house, with a sick family, who waits for a court to clear his name.
- Anna ThedorovnaBarbara's grasping relative, who takes in the family after the father's death and keeps them in her debt.
- BwikovA landowner linked to Barbara's old misfortunes, who returns to St. Petersburg and begins asking questions about her.
- PokrovskiA poor, sickly student whom Barbara loves in her youth, and whose ragged father adores him and proudly praises him.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print hardcover
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Poor Folk in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Poor Folk
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky · 1846
An old clerk and a young seamstress trade letters across a courtyard, and a looped curtain is their signal.
Medium level2–5 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What do two poor people say to each other when the only thing they own is a courtyard and a pen? In Poor Folk, an old clerk named Makar Dievushkin and a young seamstress named Barbara Dobroselova live in houses facing each other across a narrow yard.
Poor Folk at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 25 min2 h 40 min fast, 4 h 5 min slow
- Length
- 48,600 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1846by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two lodgers write across a courtyard
The book opens on a spring morning in St. Petersburg. Makar Dievushkin, a copyist in a government office, writes to Barbara in the house across the yard. He is joyful because she has looped up a corner of her curtain, just as he asked. To him it is a secret language.
A lowered curtain means bedtime, and a raised one means good morning. His joy is childlike, and it hides thirty lonely years in the service. Barbara answers with warmth and alarm. She cannot accept his gifts, because she knows what they cost him. She then admits the curtain moved only because she was shifting a flowerpot.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1846
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 3 h 55 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Poor Folk. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/poor-folk.
Dostoyevsky, F. (2026). Poor folk. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/poor-folk (Original work published 1846)
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Poor Folk. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/poor-folk.
@book{dostoyevsky2026poor,
author = {Dostoyevsky, Fyodor},
title = {Poor Folk},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/poor-folk},
note = {First published 1846}
}
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What is Poor Folk about?
Poor Folk is about an elderly clerk, Makar Dievushkin, and a young seamstress, Barbara Dobroselova, who live across a courtyard in St. Petersburg and write to each other. Their letters show love, generosity, shame and the pressures of poverty.
Why is Poor Folk told in letters?
The letter form lets each character speak in a personal voice, with no narrator between them and the reader. We see what they choose to tell, what they hide and how their feelings change from one letter to the next.
What does the curtain mean in Poor Folk?
The curtain in Barbara's window is a secret signal that Makar invents. A raised corner means she is awake and thinking of him, and a lowered one means bedtime. It stands for their small, private bond.
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.
More by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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