Jan 4, 2025
Fyodor Dostoevsky, a Russian author who wrote about loneliness, human nature, life, atrocities, spiraling into the void, and much more, has become an internet sensation in the past couple of months.
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Dostoevsky’s works have shot to fame on social media, especially BookTok and Bookstagram, and people are sharing quotes, and excerpts, lessons, and relatable situations from his works.
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When people are asked about what makes them like Dostoevsky’s work, the most common answer is - He is relatable! Dostoevsky's works talk about love, guilt, suffering, redemption, and more, and look at how complex life can get.
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‘White Nights’ is a short, brief book that talks about a lonely man and his lost chance at love. It is also the book that every other Bookstagrammer is holding right now, talking about the relatability of the work and the ease of reading.
Penguin-Classic
‘White Nights’ is merely 90 pages long, but not an easy read. It is about a man consumed in loneliness, who then meets a woman whose lover has not contacted her, he falls for her, they spend a day of happiness, but then her lover reunites and he is left lonely all over again.
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Dostoevsky’s writing is filled with what people can call deep, thought-provoking, and ‘intellectual sounding’ quotes that make viral captions for social media posts.
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Another reason why Dostoevsky is trending again is that his work is the perfect example of ‘dark academia’ aesthetic which makes people sound and seem darker, and more mature for their age.
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Another famous Dostoevsky work is ‘Crime and Punishment’. It is the story of Raskolnikov, a smart, young boy who commits a murder thinking an old life lost is better than his decay, but then spirals into internal struggles about the act he committed.
Penguin-Classics
Another masterpiece by Dostoevsky is ‘The Brothers Karamazov’, a book that talks about three brothers, Dmitri, Ivan, and Alexei, and their father, and has themes of faith, family, and free will.
Farrar-Straus-and-Giroux
Dostoevsky’s work is far from easy, and ‘White Nights’ is not the first book one should read influenced by social media. Sure, it is short and concise, but it is not easy to follow. So, to start reading his work, it is better to read ‘The Idiot’ or ‘The Eternal Husband’.
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