"Uncle's Dream" is a somewhat comic small-town society tale. It satirizes Petersburg society with an emphasis on the evils of gossip. When the aging Russian Prince, Prince K., arrives in the town of Mordasov, Marya Alexandrovna Moskaleva, a doyenne of local society life, takes him under her protection, with the aim of engineering his marriage with her 23 year old daughter Zina. Yet with many rivals for the hands of both parties, events are not guaranteed to run smoothly. In this novel, vanity and pride are everyday human's obsessions and the word "love" loses its meaning in the socially-arranged marriages. It is a must read for any fan of not only Dostoyevsky, but of Russian literature and the "goings-on" of the Russian "upper crust".