The great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) is best known to the readers throughout the world primarily thanks to his “Great Five Books” — the novels The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, Crime and Punishment, The Possessed and The Adolescent. They were repeatedly translated into foreign languages and published in many countries. Films and series were shot on them, spectacles were staged.

The small story Uncle’s Dream written in 1859 is no less interesting than the novels. The scene is set in the provincial town of Mordasov, where Prince K. was passing through, a dotard trying to appear younger. The first lady of the city Maria Aleksandrovna Moskaleva considered the prince to be a very profitable match for her daughter and decided to arrange this marriage…