White Nights and Other Stories

The Landlady, a novella written in 1847, is accompanied in this volume by the rest of Dostoevsky’s shorter fiction—all presented in sparkling new translations by Roger Cockrell.

 

The young, reclusive scholar Vasily Ordynov becomes infatuated with Katerina, who is married to the much older Ilya Murin, a man of forbidding manners and appearance. Having managed to secure a lodging at their home, Ordynov becomes aware of his landlord’s murky past and his reputed gift of clairvoyance, which has created a stir in the neighbourhood. As he develops a passion for his landlady, which Katerina reciprocates, the scene is set for a violent confrontation and a cataclysmic denouement.