Poor People

Dostoevsky's first published fictional work is a series of letters between a poor clerk, Makar Alexievitch Dievushkin, and a young girl, Barbara Alexievna Dobroselova, the object of his desires who lives nearby. As their correspondence progresses, Dievushkin literally sells everything to help Dobroselova, but their epistles lead to sadness. Patrick Cullen and Julia Emlen read the letters with deep emotion, exhibiting the love, frustration, and ultimate sorrow felt by the characters. Cullen's portrayal of Dievushkin's bouts of drunkenness, as well as his frantic efforts to save Dobroselova, are marvelous and intense. Unfortunately, the narrators' lack of Russian accents, and their consequent failure to provide the characters with a proper ethnicity, detracts from what would be considered masterful performances. D.J.S. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine