Penguin Select Classics: White Nights: (Original, Unabridged Classic) Paperback – 10 October 2024
Fyodor Dostoyevsky . Penguin Select Classics . English
“I don’t know how to be silent when my heart is speaking.” Set in the enchanting streets of St. Petersburg, this is a story of a young man who is a dreamer, and wanders on the city’s deserted lanes during long summer nights. On a foggy night, under the hazy streetlights, a young man met Nastenka, who captured his heart with her beauty and innocence. They spent four consecutive nights together, as he becomes increasingly besotted with Nastenka, sharing his innermost thoughts and feelings. Just as he was beginning to feel safe in their oasis, he discovers that Nastenka is in love with another man; a prince who has promised to return to her after a long absence. Yet, he is certain that even Nastenka is drawn to him, each grappling with their own sense of longing and desire for connection. Through this vivid narrative of the intoxicating power of hope, the young man’s monologues reveal his absolute yearning for love, while Nastenka’s vulnerability and romantic idealism add layers of emotion to the story. Through these fragile yet sublime characters we witness the beauty and pain of unrequited love.
Categories: Action & Adventure
About the Author
The subtitle of Richard Garnett's biography (reissued in Faber Finds) of his grandmother, Constance Garnett (1861-1946) is A Heroic Life. It couldn't be more apt. She remains the most prolific English translator of Russian literature: twelve volumes of Dostoevsky, five of Gogol, six of Herzen (his complete My Past and Thoughts), seventeen of Tchehov (her spelling), five of Tolstoy, eleven of Turgenev and so on. Many of these will be appearing in Faber Finds. In all she translated over sixty works. It is not, however, the sheer quantity that is to be celebrated, though that in itself is remarkable, it is more the enduring quality of her work. Of course there have been critics - translation is a peculiarly controversial subject, but there have been many more admirers. Tolstoy himself praised her. Of her Turgenev translations, Joseph Conrad said 'Turgeniev (sic) for me is Constance Garnett and Constance Garnett is Turgeniev'. Katherine Mansfield declared the lives of her generation of writers were transformed by Constance Garnett's translations, and H. E. Bates went so far as to say that modern English Literature itself could not have been what it is without her translations. This extraordinary achievement was accomplished despite poor health and poor eyesight, the latter being ruined by her labours on War and Peace, a tragic if fitting sacrifice; her's indeed was A Heroic Life.
