In these stories, Dostoevsky explores both the figure of the dreamer divorced from reality, and also his own ambiguous attitude toward utopianism, themes central to his great novels. In White Nights, the apparent idyll of the dreamer's romantic fantasies disguises profound loneliness and estrangement from "living life." A Gentle Creature and The Dream of a Ridiculous Man show how withdrawal from reality can end in spiritual desolation as well as moral indifference, and how, in Dostoevsky's view, the tragedy of the alienated individual can only be resolved by the rediscovery of a sense of compassion and responsibility toward other people.
No other edition brings together these specific stories--which are most interesting when read alongside one another--and the new translations capture all the power and lyricism of Dostoevsky's writing at its best.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Alan Myers is a freelance translator. W. J. Leatherbrow is Reader in Russian at Sheffield University. The same team worked on Dostoevsky's The Idiot in World's Classics.
Language Notes:
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherOxford University Press
- Publication date1999
- ISBN 10 0192838288
- ISBN 13 9780192838285
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages160
-
Rating