Poor Folk

What does it cost to preserve your dignity when even a small kindness is more than you can afford?

In Poor Folk, Fyodor Dostoyevsky's first published novel, two struggling residents of St. Petersburg share their lives through letters. Makar Devushkin, a low-paid copying clerk, and Varvara Dobroselova offer each other affection and companionship while facing the daily pressures of poverty. Their correspondence makes room for worry, embarrassment, gratitude, and the hope of easing another person's suffering.

Set in nineteenth-century Russia, this intimate epistolary novel finds its drama in ordinary necessities and the painful awareness of social rank. Money shapes not only what Makar and Varvara can do, but how they see themselves and what they dare to ask of one another. Dostoyevsky turns small humiliations and gestures of generosity into a searching portrait of human vulnerability. The result is a work of social realism whose questions about inequality, compassion, and self-respect remain close to contemporary life.

What readers find inside:
Lives in letters - Makar and Varvara reveal their fears and attachments through a personal exchange rather than a distant narrator.St. Petersburg hardship - The city's social divisions form the backdrop to lives constrained by scarce money and uncertain prospects.Pride under pressure - Everyday encounters expose the strain of protecting self-respect while depending on others.Costly kindness - Affection and generosity become complicated when the giver has little to spare.A literary beginning - Dostoyevsky's debut introduces his enduring concern with suffering, shame, and the inner lives of overlooked people.
A rewarding choice for readers of classic Russian literature, novels told through letters, and compassionate fiction about class and human connection.

Begin the correspondence and discover two lives made vivid by the need to understand and care for one another.