Poor Folk Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky First published in 1846, it was lauded by the influential critic Belinsky as being socially conscious literature, who (among others) hailed him as the new Gogol. This book was partly inspired by Nikolai Gogol's short story The Overcoat, whose male protagonist is also a copy clerk. This novel is written in the form of letters of correspond... more »ence between the two main characters. Like The Overcoat, the novel gives a profound account of the lives of low income Russians in the mid-nineteenth century.« less