This bundle with tales of blindness, illusion and, on behalf of the author, disillusion is a perfect introduction to the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky. They expose splendidly the author's dreams, obsessions, psychological insights, passionate characterizations and frenzied style.
Blindness
In `The Eternal Husband', a man has no inkling of the unfaithfulness of his wife. He even admires her lover: `Eternal husbands are only husbands in life and nothing else. It is impossible for him not to wear horns.'
In `The Meek One', a man doesn't understand his own dumb selfishness.
Illusions and disillusion
In `A Nasty Anecdote', State councilor Pralinsky sees `humaneness with subordinates - they, too, are people' as `the cornerstone of the forthcoming reform.' But, his drunken behavior turns into something very nasty indeed.
In `The Dream of a Ridiculous Man', still one man believes in the main thing, `love others as yourself ... I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of people'.
But, in `Bobok', human evil goes even on after death, in the grave: `the depravity of flabby and rotting corpses - not even sparing the last moments of consciousness.'
Themes
A recurrent theme in Dostoevsky's work is the little girl; here, `Liza' in `The Eternal Husband' and one without a name in `The Dream of a Ridiculous Man.'
People are also falling into a sort of frenzy, become bedeviled (the lover in `The Eternal Husband') or can barely survive utter despair (the suicide temptation in `The Dream of a Ridiculous Man').
This typical Dostoyevskyan book with its universal themes is a must read for all lovers of world literature.
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