White Nights

White Nights is a novella by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, first published in 1848. It tells the story of a young, lonely man living in St. Petersburg who experiences a brief but intense emotional connection with a woman named Nastenka. Over the course of four nights, they meet and talk, and the narrator opens up about his own sense of isolation, loneliness, and his dreams of romantic love.

Nastenka, however, is already in love with another man and has been waiting for him to return. As their relationship deepens, the narrator's feelings grow stronger, but he is eventually faced with the painful reality that Nastenka's heart belongs to someone else.

The story explores themes of unrequited love, loneliness, and the idealization of romance. The title "White Nights" refers to the phenomenon in St. Petersburg during the summer when the city experiences almost continuous daylight, which mirrors the narrator’s hopeful yet fleeting emotional experience.