âA Faint Heartâ is one of Dostoevskyâs earliest short stories and it focuses on the tragedy of Vasya Shumkov, a passionate but naĂŻve young man. The tale begins with Vasya informing his best friend, Arkady, that he is engaged to a woman he courted secretly out of fear that bad luck would befall the relationship. Dostoevsky writes tenderly about the menâs friendship as they find themselves in many hilarious situations while celebrating the engagement, but tragedy soon strikes. In a cruel twist of fate, Vasyaâs fear of losing his happiness causes him to fall into a pit of misfortune that he struggles to free himself from. What follows is a gripping and heartbreaking tale as Arkady rushes around the city to find and rescue Vasya before it is too late. This short portrays the combination of irony and tragedy that would define Dostoevskyâs later works and has some of the celebrated authorâs most poignant and romantic images. âA Faint Heartâ is a must-read for fans of Dostoevskyâs well-known novels such as âThe Idiotâ.
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was a famous Russian writer of novels, short stories, and essays. A connoisseur of the troubled human psyche and the relationships between the individuals, Dostoevskyâs oeuvre covers a large area of subjects: politics, religion, social issues, philosophy, and the uncharted realms of the psychological. He is most famous for the novels âCrime and Punishmentâ, âThe Idiotâ, and âThe Brothers Karamazovâ. James Joyce described Dostoevsky as the creator of âmodern proseâ and his literary legacy is influential to this day as Dostoevskyâs work has been adapted for many movies including âThe Doubleâ starring Jesse Eisenberg.