Cinema VinesBrazilian book‑influencer Marcelo Nogueira, who has 13,000 followers on TikTok, has turned Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 19th‑century novella White Nights into a viral phenomenon. The 27‑year‑old, who admits he is not a classicist, was drawn to the story of a dreamer who wanders Saint Petersburg’s streets and falls in love with a young woman. The tale, which follows the narrator over four nights and a morning, has become a bestseller in Brazil almost 180 years after its original publication.
According to Editora 34, the publisher of the novella, sales jumped 463 percent year‑on‑year, a surge that has also been felt in the United Kingdom and Spain. The book’s popularity is largely driven by Gen Z readers who find resonance in the “solitary dreamer” figure, a sentiment echoed by Nogueira who noted that many young people feel similarly isolated today.
On TikTok’s book community, BookTok, the novella’s lines have gone viral. One of the most quoted passages—“My God! A whole minute of bliss! Is that really so little for the whole of a man’s life?”—has sparked tens of thousands of comments. Users describe the work as “real life written in a poetic way,” and influencers such as Paloma Lima say the book’s short, intense narrative fits the “friends becoming lovers” trope that is popular on the platform.
In Russia, the reaction has been more muted. At the Moscow Book Fair, author Ekaterina Kvitko observed that young Russian readers are less enthused, suggesting that the story’s solitary protagonist may not resonate with teenagers in the West as strongly as it does with their Western counterparts.
Beyond boosting sales of White Nights, the TikTok craze has opened doors to Dostoevsky’s broader oeuvre. Danilo Hora of Editora 34 reported a 53 percent increase in sales of Crime and Punishment during the first seven months of the year, indicating that the novella serves as a gateway to more challenging works. In an age when short videos are blamed for shortening attention spans, social media is proving capable of cultivating new audiences for classic literature, a trend that publishers and readers alike are watching closely.
