White Nights

What it is

This is the original Russian text of White Nights, a novella written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and published in 1848. It is preserved in its original language on Russian Wikisource, listed among his shorter works.

Why it matters

White Nights is one of Dostoevsky's early works, told from the perspective of a lonely dreamer in St Petersburg during the city's famous white nights. It reflects the Romantic literary mood common in Russian literature of the period and shows a gentler, more lyrical side of Dostoevsky's writing compared to his later, darker novels. The epigraph from fellow writer Ivan Turgenev links Dostoevsky to the wider literary circle of his time.

Look closer

• How does the narrator describe his feelings of loneliness in the opening passage?
• Why might Dostoevsky set this story during the 'white nights' of St Petersburg?
• What does the use of a poem by Turgenev at the start suggest about Dostoevsky's literary connections?