Reviews

The Best Short Stories of Dostoyevsky by Fyodor Dostoevsky

spoetnik's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

Not a big fan of short stories but some of them were bangers. Especially white nights, winter notes on summer impressions and a nasty story

tomesandtea's review against another edition

Boring and self-absorbed rubbish

michaellortz's review

4.0

All throughout this collection, I thought Dostoyevsky had an issue with women. They are beaten, lied to, killed, and mistreated. And his characters display horrible incel like behaviors.
I wrote about that and more in my review:
https://theserioustip.blogspot.com/2022/06/reading-dostoyevsky-short-stories.html

naxmy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

lillianareads's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

hauntedkate's review against another edition

challenging dark funny medium-paced

3.0

__sam__'s review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.25

tori3's review against another edition

dark emotional funny sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

trooperkix's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

sankalp_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

The Gist of Dostoevsky

 
This was my first book of Dostoevsky and Russian literature and I’m glad that I picked this up. This book sets the ground for the Dostoevskian way of thinking and themes that you may discover in his proclaimed works. From what I have read and saw in those Instagram reels, I little knew the depressing yet hopeful narrative that Dostoevsky tries to compel in his work but I was unsure if I were to find those proclaimed works of his to be boring, Me having smaller attention span doesn’t wanted to pick those 500-600 pages novel, it felt too much. For a person like me, this book was a gem, it compiles seven of his short stories he wrote in different points of his life.
 
The book starts with a preface introduction by David Magarshack that outlines the timeline in when Dostoevsky wrote these stories. That It is important, knowing this information helps the reader to see how much Dostoevsky have evolved and the themes in his books are changing as he grow.
 
Following are the stories that are in the book (all of them are of 100 or less pages) with my ratings-
 

1. The White nights (5/5)
2. Honest Thief (3/5)
3. The Christmas tree and A wedding (2/5)
4. The peasant Marey (3.5/5)
5. Notes from Underground (3.5/5)
6. A gentle creature (4/5)
7. The dream of Ridiculous man (4/5)

 
If you are someone who wants to get into Dostoevsky’s work or want a book to read before bed, I think this is book does it’s job very well.