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.