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Varvara Dobroselova

Description: Poor Folk is an epistolary novel -- that is, a tale told as a series of letters between the characters. And oh, what characters these are! Makar Dievushkin Alexievitch is a copy writer, barely squeaking by; Barbara Dobroselova Alexievna works as a seamstress, and both face the sort of everyday humiliation society puts upon the poor. These are people respected by no one, not even by themselves. These are folks too poor, in their circumstances, to marry; the love between them is a chaste and proper thing, a love that brings some readers to tears. But it isn't maudlin, either; Fyodor Dostoevsky has something profound to say about these people and this circumstance. And he says it very well. When the book was first published a leading Russian literary critic of the day -- Belinsky -- prophesied that Dostoevsky would become a literary giant. It isn't hard to see how he came to that conclusion, and in hindsight, he was surely was correct.

Read by Patrick Cullen and Julia Emlen



Opening: April 8th: MY DEAREST BARBARA ALEXIEVNA,—How happy I was last night—how immeasurably, how impossibly happy! That was because for once in your life you had relented so far as to obey my wishes. At about eight o'clock I awoke from sleep (you know, my beloved one, that I always like to sleep for a short hour after my work is done)—I awoke, I say, and, lighting a candle, prepared my paper to write, and trimmed my pen. Then suddenly, for some reason or another, I raised my eyes—and felt my very heart leap within me! For you had understood what I wanted, you had understood what my heart was craving for.

Whilst it is nice to be able to visit D's very first novel, I was infinitely pleased it was so short. His growth as an author was simply amazing.

I forgot to mention earlier, as I was watching Island in the Sun the other day, Crime and Punishment was used to perfection. The book was given to the murderer by the policeman in charge of the case. Neat!

Makar Devushkin

2* Poor Folk
5* Crime and Punishment
5* The Brothers Karamazov
3* The Idiot
5* Notes from Underground
3* Demons
3* The House of the Dead
4* The Double
TR The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
4* The Eternal Husband
4* A Gentle Spirit
3* The Village of Stepanchikovo