Uncle’s Dream

When the ageing Russian Prince, Prince K., arrives in the town of Mordasov, Marya Alexandrovna Moskaleva, a doyenne of local society life, takes him under her protection, with the aim of engineering his marriage with her twenty-three year old daughter Zina. Yet with many rivals for the hands of both parties, events are not guaranteed to run smoothly. The gossiping and rumour-mill of the country village are deftly captured in Dostoevsky’s mock-heroic tone. A rare foray into comedy by the giant of Russian literature, Uncle’s Dream nonetheless still possesses all the hallmarks of Dostoevsky’s psychological and philosophical writing.