Showing results by author "Fyodor Dostoevsky" in All Categories

"A Faint Heart" is a testament to the author's brilliant sense of style and subtle sense of psychology. Two men have a passionate and loving relationship but are not homosexuals. The narrative is about a young clerk who can not reconcile his own personal happiness at marrying a lovely young woman while the rest of the world is not equally as happy. He winds up institutionalized and his beloved marries another, but falls to the ground weeping when meeting his dear friend two years later.

"The Christmas Tree and the Wedding" is a bittersweet story written in 1848, the year of revolutions throughout Europe. The story has an undercurrent reflecting the tumultuous changes of that year. The narrator, attending a Christmas party with the Christmas tree referenced in the title, sees the Guest of Honor take an undue interest in a young girl, the daughter of his host....

The narrator in the story has just came back from a wedding, but he wants to take us to a Christmas party that he was at several years ago and where he witnessed how big of a difference there is between the social classes. He saw how the rich people’s children received expensive gifts while one poor boy, the son of the governess, received only a book without covers. The narrator observed something else too: children do not build relationships based on wealth. They are pure and free from prejudices - until the society changes them.

Guy de Maupassant, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and Fyodor Dostoevsky, are just some of the famous writers whose wit and wisdom are included in this audiobook, "700 Quotations from the Great Writers of the 19th Century". Between them, these authors are responsible for some of the most famous stories ever written, including "Crime and Punishment", "The Three Musketeers" and "Madame Bovary". This carefully crafted collection is guaranteed to inspire, amuse, and entertain. These literary giants are considered among the greatest writers of the 19th Century.

Christmas may come but once a year but evil, intrigue and malevolence are everyday events. Within this volume Christmas is a time when these dark forces form and coalesce to take life and liberty from people who may and who may not deserve the spin of its wheel. Some are merely evil, others have the beginnings of a conscience that displays itself in a dialogue with the devil, or perhaps only themselves. But, in this volume Christmas takes a ringside seat to the horrors of the human heart.

This short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky was first published in 1848. A man walking past a wedding is reminded of a children’s New Year’s Eve party he attended 5 years previously – a party that was clearly an excuse for the parents to make advantageous connections in a casual setting. As an outsider at the party, he was able to observe the guests in greater detail than most, and took particular note of the children playing by the Christmas tree, and the social hierarchy they unwittingly participated in. This recording is based on the 1918 translation by Constance Garnett.

A poignant tale of love and loneliness takes place during the 'White Nights' of St. Petersburg: a time in the summer months when the nights do not darken beyond twilight due to the city's northern location. The story is told by an unnamed narrator, a young man of 26, a self-professed dreamer and introvert, who lives alone in St. Petersburg. Wandering the streets at night he meets a young lady, lonely like himself, and they strike up a friendship. Meeting on successive nights the friendship develops and begins to show signs of love.