Drunken Stream-of-Consciousness with Insights

I have read a few of Dostoevsky’s novels, but his puffed by this blurb short stories are unfamiliar. “‘White Nights’ tells of love and loss on the streets of St. Petersburg, ‘A Nasty Business’ presents the hilarious tale of a general dropping in on the wedding of a subordinate, while ‘The Meek One’ is an existentialist tale of marriage and tragedy.” Though these are novella-sized stories, as they stretch for nearly a hundred pages.
Some of the poetic nature of “White Nights” has been lost in the translation. Russian has more syllables, and there might have been more alliteration in the original. And this translation seems to have preferred fewer syllables in words to make it more readable. In this English version, it does not read particularly well. For example, the whining could have appeared in any of the pop novels: “It suddenly seemed that I, so alone, was being abandoned by everyone—that everyone was deserting me…” The one literary surprise is that the narrator confesses that after “living in Petersburgh” for “eight years” he has “hardly been able to make a single acquaintance.” What might have been a dull complain turns into an observation that should echo with a deeper pattern in human experience in big, crowded cities. This narrator, like “Woolf”, also sets out to observe the city, and study and draw portraits of its characters. In a curious twist, Dostoevsky finds it more interesting to talk with inanimate houses: “‘…in May they’re going to add a floor to me…’ Or: ‘I almost burned down and I was so scared’” (155). The main difference from pop here is that the narrator is vividly cognizant of what is happening beyond the dull, obvious exterior. A pop writer might just say, houses stood along the street. A canonical book must question what these houses are thinking.
This collection opens, without intros (as typical for this Penguin series), with “A Nasty Business”. The narrative starts by describing “three” generals, who are “sitting around a little table, each in a fine, soft armchair, quietly and comfortably sipping champagne as they talked.” Dostoevsky has the luxury (perhaps because of his literary rank) of gradually stopping to discuss the period, and the furniture. The reader is pushed as the narrator slowly ponders on one character who: “was a bachelor because he was an egoist; he was far from stupid but couldn’t bear displaying his intelligence; he particularly disliked slovenliness and enthusiasm…” Pop fiction tends to avoid most dives into a character’s psyche, or seems to confuse generalities with these types of specific observations about a person. However, across these prolonged reflections, the narrator fails to explain why these guys are meeting or why this is significant to the larger plot. When they finally begin speaking, they address the “matter of humaneness… the peasantry, the courts, agriculture, tax-farming…” Then when a “syllogism” is used, it is called as such: “I am humane, consequently, they love me.” Just as the conversation seems to be headed to revolutionary matters, it drunkenly diverts into echoes, and then they realize they have to end the gathering because of the late hour. And all that work done explaining who these generals are is wasted as the lead character departs, and is followed to the street where he has a very light dialogue. If pop novels are to be ridiculed for such stumbling lack of focus, or connection between ideas, the same critique should be addressed to Dostoevsky here (1-11).
Opening this collection at a random page takes us back in an echo to the scene of the drinking generals: “he… sensed that he had enemies among the guests. ‘That’s probably because I was drunk before…’” (52). These repeating paranoias, and drinking is hardly a sign of great writing. There are deep moments of insight, followed by similarly empty passages as what appears in pop. Thus, pop writers who stumble into these mistakes should not feel too bad: they have good canonical company.
—Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Fall 2024: https://anaphoraliterary.com/journals/plj/plj-excerpts/book-reviews-fall-2024

This was my first time reading Dostoyevsk, and I really enjoyed the first and last stories! This edition will be a prefect edition to collections!