“There are meetings which seem predestined from the very beginning of time.” Chapter 1: Velchaninov’s Unexpected Visitor Alexei Ivanovich Velchaninov, a middle-aged man with a troubled past, is […]
Russian literature
Poor Folk
“I am a poor man… my life has been a series of misfortunes.” Chapter 1 The novel opens with a letter from Makar Devushkin, a low-ranking government clerk, […]
Russian literature
White Nights
“My God! A whole moment of happiness! Is that too little for the whole of a man’s life?” Chapter 1: The Dreamer The unnamed narrator, a lonely and […]
Russian literature
The Double
“He was completely crushed, and at the same time he felt that he was right, that he had been insulted, that he had been treated unjustly, and that […]
Russian literature
The Gambler
“The chief thing is to keep playing, to keep hoping for luck.” Chapter 1 The novel opens with the introduction of Alexei Ivanovich, a young tutor working for […]
Russian literature
Notes from Underground
“I am a sick man… I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased.” Part 1: Underground The unnamed narrator, a […]
Russian literature
Demons (The Possessed)
“And the demons begged Him, saying, ‘If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of swine.’” —Matthew 8:31 (Epigraph to Demons) Part One The novel […]
Russian literature
The Idiot
“Beauty will save the world.” Part 1 Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, a young man with epilepsy and childlike innocence, returns to Russia after years in a Swiss sanatorium. […]
Russian literature
The Brothers Karamazov
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much […]
Russian literature
Crime and Punishment
“I wanted to become a Napoleon, that is why I killed her…” Part 1 Rodion Raskolnikov, a destitute former student in St. Petersburg, plans to murder Alyona Ivanovna, […]