Poor Folk

Composed entirely of an exchange of letters between a middle-aged copy clerk and a young seamstress who live on opposite sides of a Petersburg tenement courtyard, the novel explores the emotional and psychological effects of a threatening urban environment.

Poor Folk, Dostoevsky’s first novel, published in 1846, occupies a position of particular interest and importance in the history of Russian literature, as it represents the confluence of important literary traditions, especially the influence of Gogol. While a natural starting point for anyone who reads Dostoevsky, the author made a point of saying that the style of the novel was not his.