White Nights Poor Folk The Double — Fyodor Mihayloviç Dostoyevski

White Nights is one of Dostoevsky s earlier short stories but one of his most enduringly popular It tells the story of four nights in the life of the lonely narrator who meets and falls in love with the mysterious and beautiful Nastenka Poor Folk was Dostoevsky s first novel written to try and alleviate his financial plight and was a commercial success It tells the story of Makar Devushkin a clerk and Varvara Dobroselova a seamstress by means of the letters they exchange they are in love but too poor to marry Its exploration of humanitarian themes led to it being described as Russia s first social novel By contrast Dostoevsky s second novel The Double was not well received First published in 1846 it was revised and republished by Dostoevsky in 1866 but he did not consider it a success By contrast Vladimir Nabokov called it the best thing he ever wrote and described it as a perfect work of art