Poor Folk by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Rating: 4/5

Summary:

A short novel about poverty and the effects it has on a person, emotionally and physically. The two main characters, Makar Dievushkin Alexievitch, who works as a copy writer, and Barbara Dobroselova Alexievna, who works as a seamstress, are both poor and write letters to each other describing the hard life they both experience, along with the affection they feel for each other.

Strengths:

It was fascinating how the writer expressed the novel as insightful conversations between the two characters, and I loved how the writer made Makar choose the most meticulous words to describe Barbara like he is describing a piece of art even though they see each other occasionally.

Weaknesses:

The novel was a little bit pale. He was doing a great job describing the part of Makar seeing things from his own perspective but not from the character Barbara. It will be great if he also wrote how Barbara saw things, so we know what she meant writing her own letters.

My Opinion:

This is one of my favorite novels and Dostoevsky is a magnificent writer. I totally agreed with the author. The way he described things, the way he smoothly had me feeling the feelings inside the novel like it is real was amazing. And Poor Folk is not the last work of Dostoevsky I will read.