Poor Folk

“Poor People” is a novel by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, the first original published work of the Russian writer. The novel consists of fifty-four letters exchanged between the main characters—an elderly official, Makar Alekseyevich Devushkin, and a young orphan girl, Varvara Alekseyevna Dobroselova. “In the author of ‘Poor People’ you can see talent; his choice of subjects speaks in favor of his qualities of spirit—but it is also visible that he is still young. There is much talkativeness and little inward focus: everything would be far more alive and stronger if it were more concise.” N. V. Gogol. “Glory and honor to the young poet, whose muse loves people in attics and basements and speaks of them to the residents of gilt halls: ‘For these are also people—your brothers!’” V. G. Belinsky.