White Nights. a Sentimental Story from the Diary
Fyodor Dostoevsky's "White Nights" is narrated by an unnamed young dreamer who has lived nearly eight years in Petersburg without forming a single real acquaintance, instead befriending the city's streets, houses, and passers-by from a distance. When summer empties the city as everyone departs for their villas, he is seized by loneliness for three days before realizing its cause. One night, walking along the canal embankment, he sees a young woman weeping alone by the railing. When a drunken gentleman begins to pursue her, the dreamer drives the man off with his walking stick and offers her his arm. The girl, Nastenka, is wary at first but warms to him, extracting a promise that he will not fall in love with her before agreeing to meet again the next night. On their second meeting he tells her, half in the third person, the "history" of what he is: a solitary dreamer who lives more fully in fantastic, self-spun romances than in real life, someone who has built elaborate imaginary loves and adventures because he has no genuine ones. Nastenka is moved and, in turn, tells him her own story. She lives with her blind grandmother, who once pinned Nastenka's dress to her own to prevent her from wandering off, so that the two are literally tethered together. A young lodger took the upper floor of their house, lent Nastenka works (Walter Scott, Pushkin), took her and her grandmother to the opera to see The Barber of Seville, and eventually she fell in love with him. Before he left for a year in Moscow, she went to his room with a bundle of her belongings, prepared to run away with him; he told her he was too poor to marry yet but promised that if he returned still caring for her, they would marry. The year is now up, he has been back three days, and he has not come to see her. She asks the narrator to help draft and deliver a letter to him. Over the following nights the narrator delivers the letter, and the two wait together for a reply that does not come. As Nastenka's hope falters, the narrator, deeply in love with her himself, finally confesses his feelings. Grief-stricken and afraid the former lodger has abandoned her, Nastenka tells the narrator she could learn to love him instead, and the two begin speaking joyfully of a shared future together, even planning that he would move into her grandmother's house as a lodger. Just as they are walking together in this new happiness, they encounter the lodger himself on the street. Nastenka cries out, rushes to him, but first turns back to kiss the narrator warmly before running off with her former beloved, leaving the narrator alone. The story closes the next morning with a letter from Nastenka, apologizing for the pain she caused, explaining she still loves the narrator as a devoted friend and is deeply grateful to him, but that she is to be married to the returned lodger within the week; she asks the narrator's forgiveness and continued friendship, and invites him to visit them both. The narrator, alone in his shabby room with only his landlady Matrona for company, reflects on his despair at seeing his future stretch out unchanged and solitary, yet resolves to bear no grudge against Nastenka and to wish her lasting happiness, closing with the thought that a single moment of such happiness as he had known was not too little for an entire life.
By Fyodor Dostoevsky · First published 1848 · Genre: Romantic, Psychological, Sentimental · 25,108 words
First lines
It was a wonderful night, such a night as is only possible when we are young, dear reader. The sky was so starry, so bright that, looking at it, one could not help asking oneself whether ill-humoured and capricious people could live under such a sky. That is a youthful question too, dear reader, very youthful, but may the Lord put it more frequently into your heart! . Speaking of capricious and ill-humoured people, I cannot help recalling my moral condition all that day. From early morning I had been oppressed by a strange despondency. It suddenly seemed to me that I was lonely, that every one was forsaking me and going away from me. Of course, any one is entitled to ask who "every one" was. For though I had been living almost eight years in Petersburg I had hardly an acquaintance. But what did I want with acquaintances? I was acquainted with all Petersburg as it was; that was why I felt as though they were all deserting me when all Petersburg packed up and went to its summer villa.
What this Textopian page supports
White Nights. a Sentimental Story from the Diary of a Dreamer is listed on Textopian as a novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky, dated 1848 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Novella
- Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Date: 1848 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Romantic, Psychological, Sentimental, Realist, Philosophical
- Length: 25,108 words
- Structure: 1 section, 413 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for White Nights. a Sentimental Story from the Diary of a Dreamer by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph
Discussion starters
- What should a reader notice first when entering White Nights. a Sentimental Story from the Diary of a Dreamer?
- How does this novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky fit its genre, period, or classroom use?
- Where does Romantic first become important in the reading?
Similar titles
- White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Young Love by Sara Teasdale
- The City Of Dreadful Night by Rudyard Kipling
- At Night by Charles Pierre Baudelaire
- The Blind by Sara Teasdale
- Something Childish But Very Natural by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Genres
- Romantic — The story centers on themes of love and emotional connection, focusing on the protagonist's romantic experiences and feelings.
- Psychological — The narrative delves into the inner thoughts and emotions of the protagonist, exploring his dreams and mental state.
- Sentimental — The writing style and plot emphasize emotional expression and the protagonist's sensitivity to his experiences.
- Realist — The setting and characters are grounded in a realistic portrayal of 19th-century life, despite the dream-like narrative.
Tags
dreams · loneliness · romance · nostalgia · urban · Russia · existentialism · imagination · yearning · melancholy · self-reflection · youth