White Nights
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
In the stories in this volume, Dostoevsky explores both the figure of the dreamer detached from reality and his own vague attitude toward utopianism, themes that are at the heart of many of his great novels. In "White Nights," the obvious idyll of the dreamer's romantic fantasies masks deep loneliness and alienation from "living life." Despite his emotional friendship with Nastenka, his final ascent into the world of fantasy involves the retreat of many of Dostoevsky's later intellectual heroes to the "underground." "Gentle creation" and "The dream of a funny person" show how such a deviation from reality can result in spiritual destruction and moral indifference, and how, according to Dostoevsky, the tragedy of an alienated individual can only be solved by rediscovering a sense of compassion and responsibility towards other people.
