A Faint Heart

"A Weak Heart" by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky is written in the author’s typical manner. It expresses the boundless suffering of the human heart, compassion for that suffering, the cruelty of an exploitative society, the impossibility of personal happiness—and the impossibility of accepting it. Nevertheless, even in a relatively short novella there is no attempt to search for a real path for fighting in order to escape from suffering, humiliation, and injustice. Dostoevsky’s heroes completely drink the cup of those who suffer—and at the same time reveal an astonishing beauty of the soul, which can love selflessly, infinitely, and powerfully, and be devoted.