First published under the title The Village of Stepanchikovo, The Friend of the Family is a short comedic novel told from the perspective of Sergey Alexandrovich, who is called to Stepanchikovo in order to be swayed into marrying. But there’s a catch—each social authority in the village wants him to marry a different girl, who each has her own set of problems. At the head of the pack is the middle-aged Foma Fomich Opiskin, a passive-aggressive and manipulative noble who everyone seems to think is kind, virtuous, and selfless.
Netochka Nezvanova is Dostoevsky’s earliest attempt at novel writing—interrupted by his exile and imprisonment by the Russian authorities under suspicion of revolutionary activities. Dostoevsky never resumed this novel, leaving it unfinished and the plot unresolved.