Dostoevsky’s novella about a lonely dreamer wandering through four summer nights in Saint Petersburg is White Nights.
The story was first published in 1848 and is narrated by an unnamed young man who calls himself a dreamer. He meets Nastenka, a young woman waiting for the return of a man she loves, and their brief relationship becomes the emotional center of the work.
The title refers to Saint Petersburg’s famous summer phenomenon, when the sun remains near the horizon and darkness never becomes complete. The city’s unusual light gives the story its romantic, suspended atmosphere.
White Nights is sometimes confused with Dostoevsky’s other short fiction about alienated narrators, especially The Double. Unlike The Double, it is structured around four night encounters and a concluding morning episode.