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Book Reviewed by:A young, lonely man strolls the streets of St. Petersburg contemplating his solitude when he happens upon a young woman in tears.
While escorting her home, the two strike up a conversation and soon become friends, meeting up at night to share their stories. When the young woman, Nastenka, explains that she was crying because she had been waiting for her fiancé who promised he would be back to marry her, the young man, despite his growing feelings toward her, promises to help her locate her beloved.
"White Nights" is considered to be one of Fyodor Dostoevsky's best short stories and has been adapted numerous times for film in various languages.
Like many Dostoyevsky works, it's very funny; the narrator, a friendless and unnamed 26-year-old man, is a sympathetic but also satirical and somewhat silly figure. The narrator's exaggerated pathology and the satirical way he's written make him somewhat cartoonish. These extremes, however, also make the story entertaining, with humor that helps offset the pathos...continued
Full Review
(1036 words)
(Reviewed by Chloe Pfeiffer).
In 2024, Dostoevsky's short story White Nights became popular on BookTok, the corner of TikTok populated by readers. BookTok users post videos of themselves recommending books, discussing books, crying at the endings of books, and showing off their color-coordinated bookshelves, tagging these videos with the hashtag #BookTok. BookTok has been equally praised—young people are reading! And buying books!—and derided as a shallow way of engaging with literature. What is not in doubt, though, is how BookTok has changed the publishing industry in the past few years. Books that have gone viral on TikTok have seen increased—sometimes astronomically so—sales, are featured on TikTok display tables at bookstores, and make ...
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