The Eternal Husband and Other Stories | Fyodor Dostoevsky | Modern Library

I keep walking past Crime and Punishment written by Dostoevsky in the bookshop.  Despite it being displayed prominently, I doggedly ignore it, never forgetting my failure to repeatedly not progress beyond the first chapter of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

Modern Library puts together The Eternal Husband and four other stories (A Nasty Anecdote, Bobok, The Meek One and The Dream of a Ridiculous Man) in a thick book in English translations that is very readable.

I'm not sure why I have this feeling while reading works by writers who set their stories in the period they lived in: the stories feel more authentic as compared to modern writers who had to research plenty when setting their work in times long gone by.

These five stories put together by Modern Library felt accessible to me, and I would have wished that The Eternal Husband be used as a case study for discussion in Psychology class, because the behaviour of the characters would have made Psychology class a lot more relatable and accessible. 

I am quite surprised that I enjoyed reading these works by Dostoevsky, and am now less fearful of translated works by Russian writers.  Perhaps I might eventually progress beyond the first chapter of War and Peace too.