A Disgraceful Affair: Stories - Paperback

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Author)

From the unparalleled master of classic Russian literature, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, comes a collection of three powerful short works that explore the farthest corners of the human soul.

This volume serves as a perfect entry point into the author's enduring themes of alienation, social anxiety, and the search for spiritual truth, showcasing the profound psychological drama for which he is renowned.

This essential short story collection travels from the luminous, dream-like nights of 19th-century St. Petersburg to the far reaches of the cosmos. A lonely dreamer finds a fleeting chance at love, a high-ranking official's well-intentioned idealism leads to a night of spectacular humiliation, and a man on the verge of suicide discovers a truth so profound it gives him a new reason to live. Each narrative is a literary classic in its own right, offering a unique glimpse into the moral complexity that defines our existence.

Back Jacket

The short works of Dostoevsky exist in the very large shadow of his astonishing longer novels, but they too are among literature's most revered works and offer keys to understanding the themes in his longer works. Contained in this volume are the short stories "White Nights," "A Disgraceful Affair," and "The Dream of the Ridiculous Man," three of Dostoevsky's most troubling, moving, and poignant works.

Alongside A DISGRACEFUL AFFAIR, Harper Perennial will publish the short fiction of Stephen Crane, Herman Melville, Willa Cather, Leo Tolstoy, and Oscar Wilde to be packaged in a beautifully designed, boldly colorful boxset in the aim to attract contemporary fans of short fiction to these revered masters of the form. Also, in each of these selections will appear a story from one of the new collections being published in 2009. A story from Barb Johnson's forthcoming collection will be printed at the back of this volume.