100 Days of Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" - "White Nights" - Nastenka’s Story

100 Days of Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" - September 1 - December 15, 2025

100 Days of Dostoevsky's "The Idiot"

September 1 - December 15, 2025

September 17

White Nights

Nastenka’s Story

"I have an old grandmother. I came into her hands when I was quite a little girl, for my father and mother are dead. It must be supposed that grandmother was once richer, for now she recalls better days. She taught me French, and then got a teacher for me. When I was fifteen (and now I am seventeen) we gave up having lessons. It was at that time that I got into mischief; what I did I won't tell you; it's enough to say that it wasn't very important. But grandmother called me to her one morning and said that as she was blind she could not look after me; she took a pin and pinned my dress to hers, and said that we should sit like that for the rest of our lives if, of course, I did not become a better girl.

Grandmother woke up while I was out, and asked some questions; she thought I was still sitting quietly in my place. Fekla saw that grandmother was asking her something, but could not tell what it was; she wondered what to do, undid the pin and ran away...."

Poor Nastenka… Enter the new lodger!!! Nastenka has to confess to grandmother that he is young and attractive - what a nuisance, according to grandmother - “What times these are!”

Of course he finds out the the poor girl spends her days pinned to her grandmother…

“I blushed all over, I don't know why, and forgot I was sitting pinned to grandmother; instead of quietly undoing the pin, so that the lodger should not see—I jumped so that grandmother's chair moved. When I saw that the lodger knew all about me now, I blushed, stood still as though I had been shot, and suddenly began to cry—I felt so ashamed and miserable at that minute, that I didn't know where to look!”

But a quiet understanding of sorts develops between the lodger and he offers the two women books… As long as they are NOT French!!! Grandmother would not approve!!!

"'Ah,' she said, 'what's described in them, is how young men seduce virtuous girls; how, on the excuse that they want to marry them, they carry them off from their parents' houses; how afterwards they leave these unhappy girls to their fate, and they perish in the most pitiful way. I read a great many books,' said grandmother, 'and it is all so well described that one sits up all night and reads them on the sly.”

I burst out laughing at this point!!! NOW we understand why the poor girl is pinned to the grandmother - first and foremost, the grandmother does not want to be left alone - and, more importantly, she knows a thing or two about the external world and does not want Nastenka to get hurt… Please remember this while meeting “The Idiot” character Aglaya - her reading affliction recalls the predicament of Nastenka.

And so they begin reading - the novels of the Scottish poet and novelist Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) - but the grandmother keeps fretting - what if there are love notes between the pages or in the binding?!

Nastenka confesses to loving Stott’s 1819 novel “Ivanhoe,” and, of course, Alexandre Pushkin (1799-1837) - who served as the source of Dostoevsky’s inspiration in all of his literary compositions.

The theater invitation is hilarious - the grandmother is not only thrilled to go - but confesses the she played the role of Rosina, the young attractive ward who is trying to escape her old and restrictive guardian!!! I discuss Dostoevsky’s literary and operatic sources at the end of this post.

“I have taken a box at the opera for this evening; they are giving The Barber of Seville. My friends meant to go, but afterwards refused, so the ticket is left on my hands.' 'The Barber of Seville,' cried grandmother; 'why, the same they used to act in old days?'

"'Yes, it's the same barber,' he said, and glanced at me. I saw what it meant and turned crimson, and my heart began throbbing with suspense.

"'To be sure, I know it,' said grandmother; 'why, I took the part of Rosina myself in old days, at a private performance!’”

Nastenka is in heaven - the trip to the theatre ignited her imagination (same with Natasha in the opera scene in “War and Peace”) - but the lodger is leaving - and Nastenka - just like Rosina in the opera - decides on a daring and totally operatic act - run away with the lodger…

“And so it happened. I made up all my clothes in a parcel—all the linen I needed—and with the parcel in my hand, more dead than alive, went upstairs to our lodger. I believe I must have stayed an hour on the staircase. When I opened his door he cried out as he looked at me. He thought I was a ghost, and rushed to give me some water, for I could hardly stand up. My heart beat so violently that my head ached, and I did not know what I was doing. When I recovered I began by laying my parcel on his bed, sat down beside it, hid my face in my hands and went into floods of tears. I think he understood it all at once, and looked at me so sadly that my heart was torn.”

The lodger is honorable and chivalrous with Nastenka:

"'Listen, my dear good Nastenka, listen; I swear to you that if I am ever in a position to marry, you shall make my happiness. I assure you that now you are the only one who could make me happy. Listen, I am going to Moscow and shall be there just a year; I hope to establish my position. When I come back, if you still love me, I swear that we will be happy. Now it is impossible, I am not able, I have not the right to promise anything. Well, I repeat, if it is not within a year it will certainly be some time; that is, of course, if you do not prefer any one else, for I cannot and dare not bind you by any sort of promise.”

He is back, he has not written - the dreamer suggests Nastenka writes first - just like Tatyana in Pushkin’s novel in verse “Eugene Onegin”…

“You took the first step—why not now?"

"I can't. I can't! It would seem as though I were forcing myself on him...."

And - just like Rosina in “The Barber of Seville” - Nastenka produces a letter she has already written…

"The letter ..." said Nastenka, a little confused, "the letter ... but...."

“But she did not finish. At first she turned her little face away from me, flushed like a rose, and suddenly I felt in my hand a letter which had evidently been written long before, all ready and sealed up. A familiar sweet and charming reminiscence floated through my mind.”

"Rosina!" we both hummed together; I almost embracing her with delight, while she blushed as only she could blush, and laughed through the tears which gleamed like pearls on her black eyelashes.”

The comic opera “The Barber of Seville” by Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) premiered in 1816 in Rome and was based on the first of the “Figaro” plays by Pierre Beaumarchais (1732-1799) whose explosive writing inspired the French Revolution of 1789. The three plays, Le Barbier de Séville, Le Mariage de Figaro, and La Mère coupable, served as the inspiration for Mozart's (1756-1791) opera “The Marriage of Figaro,” composed in 1786, 30 years prior to “The Barber of Seville”, based on the second part of the Beaumarchais trilogy.

Rosina is a wealthy young lady who is living with her guardian Bartolo - who is planning on marrying her - when Count Almaviva, disguised as Lindoro, comes courting her in disguise - he wants her to fall in love with him not for his title, but for his personality. Enter Figaro - the most fabulous servant in literary and operatic history!!! Figaro prompts Rosina to write a letter to Lindoro - she surprises Figaro by handing him a letter she already composed - a plot twist Dostoevsky replicates in today’s passage!!!