comments:
The Dreamer does know Nastenka well, it's not the first time they meet. No advice for the Dreamer cause he is a big liar and Dostoesvky fooled everyone with this novella. If you are wondering what I am on about, maybe read this translation and interpretation, of course you will have to make peace with the fact that you have been fooled by the author. If ego is at stake, do not read it. Dostoevsky: Dreamer Tales
That's one way to look at it. But there is a different, slightly more interesting end to it as long as you read it the right way, meaning, as Dostoevsky wrote it. This is a new translation and has very different interpretation. Dostoevsky Dreamer Tales
The link I left has two early novellas White Nights and The Landlady, but also some selections from the Petersburg Chronicle. As far as know the PC were not translated officially, but they contain Dostoevsky's early characters and their development later. The Dreamer is later Raskolnikov, or Stavrogin or Verkovensky, but to understand them, you need to know who the Dreamer is. And this edition, new translations, God bless whoever translated it, contain the text and analysis of those characters. Among all the works The Landlady is the least understood and poorly translated, no matter the name, I already compared the available translation, and this edition contains probably the best notes for any Dostoevsky edition. Highly recommend! It's that good. Dostoevsky: Dreamer Tales
White Nights from this translation: Dreamer Tales
I think this is not great recommendation from someone, because the early Poor Folk is unrelated to his later novels. If you really want to understand Dostoevsky and his characters, begin post Poor Folk. Since I am also "someone" I can recommend one book, recent release, where you will get the idea why it is important to read the early novellas, instead of jumping to CP, just because its popular. This edition contains the circumstances around the early years of Dostoevsky, it also has selections from the Petersburg Chronicle, which as far I know have been translated, and top notch structural analysis of the novellas, It changed the way I read Dostoevsky and understand his characters. Dreamer Tales
You are partly right, reading Dostoevsky came to be some type of imposed martyrdom, "I am ready to read Dostoevsky", "Am I ready to read Dostoevsky?" "Is Dostoevsky ready to be read by me?" and the like. Others being misled by their reading come up with arguments of the Dostoevsky's arguments being weak and so on. Each has personal gain, what is better than to appear smarter than Dostoevsky? Or at the next dinner party "I read the Besy, which use to be titled as The Possessed but it's wrong now, it's Demons actually." On the other side, he is trendy, always was and will be, and because he is, he is used by celebrities, then by some director, who formerly used to make great mobster films but not anymore. Or, some intellectual, now the youtube crier, who gained celebrity status because of pronoun war and Simba, brandishes Fyodor as the ultimate go to for salvation. The problem is, Dostoevsky is great, in my opinion maybe the greatest, but his novels, and he as a writer, are put into one category, and nothing else, simply the guy who wrote torment/suffering only. Misinterpretation is already there from the first day he was published. Matters not. Because based on my understanding, he always leaves his novels open to different interpretations. Recently I had the chance to read a new translation which has a very different interpretation of White Nights, not a love story at all, or The Landlady, both of them are actually great and show how Dostoevsky was already writing metafiction and thinking cinematically, not sure if the last is a real word, but you will understand. If you really care Dostoevsky being misunderstood, then you are late, based on that new edition. I leave the link just in case. Dreamer Tales
https://www.amazon.com/Dreamer-Tales-Petersburg-Chronicle-Rediscovery-ebook/dp/B0H3JPWMG3/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1