Poor Folk

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1615341811 ISBN 13: 9781615341818

Publisher: EZreads Publications, LLC, 2010

The story is put together in the form of a set of letters written between two people, Makar Devushkin and Varvara Dobroselova. Makar and Varvara are second cousins twice-removed and live across from each other on the same street in terrible apartments. Makar's, for example, is merely a portioned-off section of the kitchen, and he lives with several other tenants, such as the Gorshkovs, whose son dies and who groans in agonizing hunger almost the entire story, gently crying at night. Makar and Varvara exchange letters back and forth attesting to their terrible living conditions and the former frequently squanders his money on gifts for the latter.

About the Author:

Dostoyevsky wrote intensely psychological and spiritual novels that formed part of the foundation of existentialism. Along with other liberal intellectuals, he was arrested in 1849 and sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted, and he was exiled in Siberia for four years, followed by five years of mandatory service in the army. When he emerged from his long ordeal he faced financial problems, depression, and an addiction to gambling and wrote his most important novels.