The dream of the uncle

In his comment on the novel "The Dream of the Uncle," Dostoevsky said: "My only concern when I wrote this first novel in Siberia after the prison was to resume my literary life, and I was very afraid of censorship, so it came out as a trembling dove, completely innocent, in a way that could make it a comic play." Thus, the novel "The Dream of the Uncle" was as if Dostoevsky wanted to distance himself from depicting the state of poverty, misery, and good souls through a novel that portrays the life of Russian aristocracy in a humorous way. The main character: "the Uncle," is a Russian aristocratic prince fascinated by the West, knows Western Europe more than he knows Russia, and wants to marry a French countess. A group of Russian aristocratic women realize the prince's passion, and a competition ensues over which of them will marry him to her daughter. The most famous lady in the city enters the competition and suddenly decides to marry the prince to her daughter, Zina, the beautiful girl. The girl submits to her mother's desire and is fascinated because she sang a French song while playing the piano. When Dostoevsky depicted this character, he presented the reader with a caricature of the decadent aristocracy infatuated with love for the West. We will see a similar caricature, with more biting satire, in the novel "The Devils."