If you’re interested in reading classic literature, this is a good one to start with. Clocking in at under 70 pages (as least according to my Kindle), this novella is told as the diary of an unnamed narrator recounting a few nights with a young woman in Petersburg.
Our narrator meets Nastenka on a street one night after rescuing her from a man who was accosting her. He had previously observed her on the bank of a river and noticed her crying, but she ran when he tried to approach. After he rescues her, they strike up a conversation and spend a few nights meeting and talking. She is waiting for a prospective suitor after a year away from him. Naturally, our narrator falls in love with her.
I did not connect emotionally with these characters, I think because the Romantic style doesn’t work for me. As a woman reading it in 2024, it felt too melodramatic and unrealistic. Characters fall in love too quickly and are highly emotional. However, I was still able to appreciate it from a literary perspective and enjoyed attempting to critique it from that standpoint. The story is about loneliness and isolation. The narrator is a dreamer with a strong internal world, and it seems that Nastenka is the first person he’s connected with in years. For the most part, he does not begrudge her happiness with her suitor and is instead appreciative of the time they had together. The ending is open, and my hope for the narrator would be that he learns that connection, however fleeting, is worth it.
From reading other reviews, I can tell that some people do connect emotionally with these characters and the themes of the book. I enjoyed it and think it’s worth the read, whether you connect with it intellectually, as I did, or more emotionally. I give it 3.5 stars, rounded down.