Oh! Nastenka! It will be sad, you know, to be left alone, quite alone, and not even have something to regret- nothing, absoluetly nothing……because all that I have lost, all this, it was nothing, absolutely nothing, a stupid, round zero- it was merely a dream!
-Dostoyevsky, White Nights, pg. no 39
I didn’t come across this book until I was talking to a friend who is equally enthusiastic about books. We were discussing my diminishing interest in romance novels/stories both in reading and writing which I wanted to revive when she suggested this book.
Title: White Nights
Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Genre: Romance (Novella)
Narrative: First person
Pages: 112
Price: Rs. 124/- (amazon)
Do love stories exist? Yes, it does! True love may have become a rarity but everyone in this world is wandering with a story engraved deep down in their heart. White Nights is one among them. It’s a novella running to barely 100 pages which you can finish in a day.
The beauty of White Nights lies in the way it has been told. The story isn’t very unique or unfamiliar. Also, the form is a storytelling, quite familiar to us. We all narrate our stories to someone. In this novella, the two characters narrate their stories to each other, and where plot takes twists and turns. It talks about the profundity of love in friendship. You may feel that some parts of it may have happened to you or around you to which you can relate. However, the way the narrator has portrayed the incident touches the readers. The lines can be felt:
“And so it is that when we are unhappy we more strongly feel the unhappiness of others; feeling is not shattered but becomes concentrated” (pg. 58)
Apart from the story, a philosophical account of the author is also added having the title ‘Bobok’. It serves loosely as the epilogue of the book.
However, the conversation, sometimes becomes childish and exaggerated but isn’t it normal for people in love?
©Shashank
Pragmatic's Personas 
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