A Faint Heart

‘A Faint Heart’ is one of Dostoevsky’s earliest short stories and it focuses on the tragedy of Vasya Shumkov, a passionate but naïve young man. The tale begins with Vasya informing his best friend, Arkady, that he is engaged to a woman he courted secretly out of fear that bad luck would befall the relationship. Dostoevsky writes tenderly about the men’s friendship as they find themselves in many hilarious situations while celebrating the engagement, but tragedy soon strikes. In a cruel twist of fate, Vasya’s fear of losing his happiness causes him to fall into a pit of misfortune that he struggles to free himself from. What follows is a gripping and heartbreaking tale as Arkady rushes around the city to find and rescue Vasya before it is too late. This short portrays the combination of irony and tragedy that would define Dostoevsky’s later works and has some of the celebrated author’s most poignant and romantic images. ‘A Faint Heart’ is a must-read for fans of Dostoevsky’s well-known novels such as ‘The Idiot’.