A Faint Heart (Full Version)

Set in wintry St. Petersburg, A Faint Heart follows Vasya Shumkov, a timid young clerk whose unexpected happiness—his engagement to the modest, warm Lizanka—arrives alongside an unforgiving burden of office copying. As his exuberant friend Arkady tries to steady him, Dostoyevsky traces how joy can become perilously overwhelming when it meets financial insecurity, social dependence, and a conscience that cannot bear the thought of failing those who have shown kindness.

With brisk humor, tenderness, and mounting unease, the story examines the psychology of gratitude, the fragility of self-worth, and the subtle humiliations of rank. Dostoyevsky’s early Petersburg tale is both intimate and sharply observant, revealing how a “small” life can contain immense emotional stakes—and how the modern city’s pressures can turn private bliss into a crisis of the soul.

• Listeners who love psychologically precise classics about ordinary people facing extraordinary inner pressure.
• Fans of Dostoyevsky’s Petersburg stories, where friendship, poverty, and social rank shape fate.
• Anyone drawn to short classic fiction that blends warmth and comedy with a quietly unsettling emotional descent.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) was a Russian novelist whose work transformed modern literature through its moral intensity and deep psychological insight. After early success, he endured imprisonment and exile, experiences that sharpened his vision of suffering, faith, freedom, and guilt. His masterpieces include Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Demons, and The Brothers Karamazov. Alongside these novels, his shorter Petersburg tales—often centered on clerks, dreamers, and the overlooked—showcase his gift for portraying the inner life under the pressures of society and conscience.