Dostoevsky F.M. Uncle's Dream (Dyadyushkin son), 1955. In Russian

Достоевский Ф.М.
Дядюшкин сон.
Художник А. Сафонов.
Смоленск: Смоленское книжное издательство, 1955.
107 с.; твердый переплет, чуть увеличенный формат.
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Dostoevsky F.M.
Uncle's Dream (Dyadyushkin son).
Illustrator A. Safonov.
Smolensk: Smolensk Book Publishing House, 1955.
107 pp.; hardcover, slightly enlarged format.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky wrote “Uncle's Dream” in 1859, shortly after his return from Siberian exile, during a transitional period when he was experimenting with satirical and comic forms before his major novels. This short novel (or long novella) is a sharp social satire set in a provincial Russian town, where an elderly, senile general (the “uncle”) is manipulated by local schemers into a farcical marriage proposal to a young heiress. Through absurd situations, gossip, intrigue, and grotesque characters, Dostoevsky exposes the moral decay, vanity, hypocrisy, and petty ambitions of provincial society, blending biting humor with subtle psychological insight — early signs of his later mastery in portraying human folly and social masks.
The 1955 Smolensk edition is a modest but attractive postwar reprint, issued by a regional publishing house during the Khrushchev thaw, when interest in Dostoevsky’s minor works was renewed. It features atmospheric illustrations by Anatoly Safonov (A. Safonov), a Soviet graphic artist active in the 1950s who specialized in literary classics, book design, and children's illustrations, bringing to life the novel’s caricatural characters and provincial interiors with expressive line drawings.