Although Russian fiction master Fyodor Dostoyevsky is best known for epic, sprawling novels that detail psychological and philosophical problems in minute detail, his more concise work is also remarkable in its scope and depth. This collection of stories will please fans of classic Russian literature and Dostoyevsky buffs who are interested in sampling the author's forays into another format.
It was a wonderful night, such a night as is only possible when we are young, dear reader. The sky was so starry, so bright that, looking at it, one could not help asking oneself whether ill-humoured and capricious people could live under such a sky. That is a youthful question too, dear reader, very youthful, but may the Lord put it more frequently into your heart!... Speaking of capricious and ill-humoured people, I cannot help recalling my moral condition all that day. From early morning I had been oppressed by a strange despondency. It suddenly seemed to me that I was lonely, that every one was forsaking me and going away from me. Of course, any one is entitled to ask who "every one" was. For though I had been living almost eight years in Petersburg I had hardly an acquaintance. But what did I want with acquaintances? I was acquainted with all Petersburg as it was; that was why I felt as though they were all deserting me when all Petersburg packed up and went to its summer villa. I felt afraid of being left alone, and for three whole days I wandered about the town in profound dejection, not knowing what to do with myself. Whether I walked in the Nevsky, went to the Gardens or sauntered on the embankment, there was not one face of those I had been accustomed to meet at the same time and place all the year. They, of course, do not know me, but I know them. I know them intimately, I have almost made a study of their faces, and am delighted when they are gay, and downcast when they are under a cloud. I have almost struck up a friendship with one old man whom I meet every blessed day, at the same hour in Fontanka. Such a grave, pensive countenance; he is always whispering to himself and brandishing his left arm, while in his right hand he holds a long gnarled stick with a gold knob. He even notices me and takes a warm interest in me. If I happen not to be at a certain time in the same spot in Fontanka, I am certain he feels disappointed. That is how it is that we almost bow to each other, especially when we are both in good humour. The other day, when we had not seen each other for two days and met on the third, we were actually touching our hats, but, realizing in time, dropped our hands and passed each other with a look of interest.
"White Nights" is a short story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, originally published in 1848, early in the writer's career.Like many of Dostoyevsky's stories, "White Nights" is told in first person by a nameless narrator; the narrator is living in Saint Petersburg and suffers from loneliness. He gets to know and falls in love with a young woman, but the love remains unrequited as the woman misses her lover with whom she is finally reunited.Film adaptations have been made by Italian director Luchino Visconti (Le notti bianche, 1957), by Russian director Ivan Pyryev (Belye nochi, 1959), by French director Robert Bresson (Four Nights of a Dreamer, 1971), by Iranian director Farzad Motamen (Shabhaye Roshan, 2003), by Indian film directors Manmohan Desai (Chhalia, 1960), Jananadhan (Iyarkai, 2003), Shivam Nair (Ahista Ahista, 2006), Sanjay Leela Bhansali (Saawariya, 2007), and Razi Muhammed (Velutha Rathrikal, 2015), by American director James Gray (Two Lovers, 2008),[1] and by Paul Vecchiali (Nuits blanches sur la jet�e, 2014).
This collection, unique to the Modern Library, gathers seven of Dostoevsky's key works and shows him to be equally adept at the short story as with the novel. Exploring many of the same themes as in his longer works, these small masterpieces move from the tender and romantic White Nights, an archetypal nineteenth-century morality tale of pathos and loss, to the famous Notes from the Underground, a story of guilt, ineffectiveness, and uncompromising cynicism, and the first major work of existential literature. Among Dostoevsky's prototypical characters is Yemelyan in The Honest Thief, whose tragedy turns on an inability to resist crime. Presented in chronological order, in David Magarshack's celebrated translation, this is the definitive edition of Dostoevsky's best stories.
Set in a fascinating alternative world in which ghosts are real, the United States never came into existence and Russia is still ruled by the Romanovs, this sequel to Of Tangible Ghosts and The Ghost of the Revelator continues the adventures of semi-retired spy Dr. Johan Eschbach. His lovely wife Llysette du Boise, a refugee from the burning remains of France and a world-famous novelist, has been invited to provide a command performance for the Russian Imperial household. Johan accompanies her, allowing him to work on the oil concession in Russian Alaska that Columbia so desperately needs and do some spying on the side. Johan's espionage is carried out against the backdrop of the famous white nights of St. Petersburg, the nearly Arctic midsummer when the sun barely dips below the horizon and the sky seems to dissolve in ivory light. But even the oil shortage will fade to insignificance when Johan discovers what new weapons technology the Russians are developing, a threat even more fearsome than the atomic bombs of Austro-Hungary. Working in the tradition of Gordon R. Dickson and Poul Anderson for hard-edged adventure with sophisticated social and political dimensions, Modesitt provides a unique blend of speculation and intrigue that brings the trilogy to a rousing end.
An army physician in pre-Communist Russia, Dr. Boris Sokoloff was elected to the democratic Constituent Assembly by the Army's southwestern sector in 1917. As someone active in the Army drives to rid the World War I regiments of their hard-core Communist groups, he was appointed head of the defense committee. The committee had been formed too late, however, and Lenin's Communists overthrew Kerensky's government. Sokoloff was in the middle of this revolutionary violence and turmoil and tells of the fall of the Winter Palace as he witnessed it and of his role in the attempt to assassinate Lenin. Later, attempting to flee across the White Sea, Sokoloff was arrested as an associate of Kerensky. He was condemned to death in notorious Boutyrki Prison, only to relieve a last-minute reprieve.
A LUSHLY ROMANTIC NOVEL FROM THE AUTHOR OF CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Eight White Nights is an unforgettable journey through that enchanted terrain where passion and fear and the sheer craving to ask for love and to show love can forever alter who we are. A man in his late twenties goes to a large Christmas party in Manhattan where a woman introduces herself with three words: "I am Clara." Over the following seven days, they meet every evening at the same cinema. Overwhelmed yet cautious, he treads softly and won't hazard a move. The tension between them builds gradually, marked by ambivalence, hope, and distrust. As André Aciman explores their emotions with uncompromising accuracy and sensuous prose, they move both closer together and farther apart, culminating on New Year's Eve in a final scene charged with magic and the promise of renewal. Call Me by Your Name, Aciman's debut novel, established him as one of the finest writers of our time, an expert at the most sultry depictions of longing and desire. As The Washington Post Book World wrote, "The beauty of Aciman's writing and the purity of his passions should place this extraordinary first novel within the canon of great romantic love stories for everyone." Aciman's piercing and romantic new novel is a brilliant performance from a master prose stylist.
The shorter works of one of the world's greatest writers, including The Gambler and Notes from Underground The short works of Dostoevsky exist in the very large shadow of his astonishing longer novels, but they too are among literature's most revered works. The Gambler chronicles Dostoevsky's own addiction, which he eventually overcame. Many have argued that Notes from Underground contains several keys to understanding the themes of the longer novels, such as Crime and Punishment and The Idiot. Great Short Works of Fyodor Dostoevsky includes: Notes from Underground The Gambler A Disgraceful Affair The Eternal Husband The Double White Nights A Gentle Creature The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
