Poor Folk

By Fyodor M Dostoevsky, Dostoïevski Fédor, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Across a cramped courtyard, two people write to one another as poverty presses upon every choice. Makar Dievushkin, an impoverished government copyist living behind a kitchen partition, exchanges dated letters with Barbara Dobroselova, a young woman whose illness and dependence leave her exposed to financial insecurity. Their correspondence becomes a private space for affection and mutual support, even as each letter reveals fresh anxieties about reputation, charity and the cost of accepting help. The contrasting voices give this epistolary novel its distinctive force. Makar's account of office life, social rank and daily hardship meets Barbara's perspective on labour, vulnerability and self-respect, allowing their circumstances to emerge through what they choose to confess, explain or withhold. Embedded memoir and literary discussion deepen the exchange without turning it into a simple record of deprivation. Instead, language itself becomes part of their effort to preserve dignity when money, health and status remain precarious. St Petersburg appears through crowded tenement rooms, government work and city streets, keeping the social world close to the correspondents' immediate experience. This literary fiction examines poverty not as an abstract condition but through embarrassment, obligation, dependence and the uncertain boundaries between generosity and humiliation. Its intimate letter form holds private feeling beside material need, showing how ordinary lives are shaped by class while resisting reduction to circumstance. This book was out of print for decades and is now republished by Alpha Editions. It has been restored for today's and future generations. This edition is not just a reprint - it's a collector's item and a cultural treasure.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9377786045
• ISBN13: 9789377786045
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Alpha Edition
• Length: 130 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"