Poor Folk

Written over the span of nine months from 1844 to 1845, Poor Folk is Fyodor Dostoevsky’s first novel. An epistolary novel, the narrative unfolds through letters between the two main characters, second cousins Makar Devushkin and Varvara Dobroselova. The novel depicts the lives of poor people and their relationship with the rich. Both of the cousins are poor, and through their correspondence, they develop a deep connection until they reach an impasse: Dobroselova loses her interest in literature and stops communicating with Devushkin after she is proposed to by a rich widower, Mr. Bykov. Devushkin maintains that he can live without money, but not without literature. The novel consists of the detailed communications between Devushkin and Dobroselova, as they complain of their terrible living conditions and their inability to escape the circumstances that poverty has brought upon them. Devushkin regularly uses what little money he has to buy gifts for Dobroselova, hoping to make her feel better about her life.