Uncle's dream

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Uncle's Dream ( Russian : Дядюшкин сон , Djadjuschkin son ) is a novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky , written in 1858. It was the first prose text that Dostoyevsky wrote during his Siberian exile; it precedes the records from a house of the dead from 1860. Uncle's Dream was published in the March 1859 issue of the Russian Word ( Russkoye Slovo ).

In this novel Dostoyevsky shows his satirical and ironic side and criticizes Russian society in a humorous way, embodied by the main character Márja Alexándrowna Moskálewa.

action

Márja Alexándrowna Moskálewa is of a scheming character and an important figure in the town of Mordássoff, where she lives with her daughter, Sinaida Afanássjewna. When one day the rich but already very old Prince K. found accommodation for a few days in Maria Alexandovna's apartment, the lady of the house plans to marry him to her still unmarried daughter in order to get the Prince's money. Through an intrigue against the old gentleman, whose memory is already badly fading, she brings the prince to the point of stopping Sina's hand. However, one of K's relatives (he always calls him “little uncle”, but himself doesn't know anything about the degree of kinship), who asked for Sina's hand and now feels betrayed by her, devises an intrigue for his part.

While Marja Alexandrovna is rushing to her estate to get her husband over as quickly as possible, Pavel Alexandrovich Mosgljakoff enters the prince's room, wakes him from his sleep and persuades him that he was only dreaming. Senile K. takes his word for it. Returning from the estate, Marya Alexandrovna meets several other high society ladies in her apartment who are inadequately concealing their hostility towards the landlady. When Prince K. finally reports on his "dream" and Marja Alexandrovna tries in vain to point out the authenticity of the events, the scandal is complete. Marja Alexandrovna and Sinaida are the mockery of the residents of Mordassoff.

A few days later Sina is called to the deathbed of her childhood sweetheart, to whom she swears eternal love shortly before she dies. After Marja Alexandrovna and Sina had escaped from Mordassoffs, Prince K.

Three years later, Mosgljakoff meets Maria Alexandrovna and Sina again at a high society ball. The daughter is now married to a governor-general and, like her mother, lives in luxury. It is said that they came from a rich and noble family.

Adaptations

play

In 1936/1937 Abram B. Enns translated Uncle's dream into German, the dramatization of which was also performed in the Lübeck Theater.

Opera

In 1933 Hans Krása's opera Engagement in a Dream premiered.

Radio plays

In the Federal Republic of Germany, two radio plays were created based on the radio processing by Hellmut von Cube (1907–1979). Both productions are available on sound carriers.

literature

output