At the time of writing the work (1847), Dostoevsky noted as a remarkable social phenomenon the man-dreamer. In the St. Petersburg Newspaper, he characterizes the dreamer as a type of person perfectly attuned to the city, which, especially during the summer, seems to encourage a detachment from reality. The atmosphere in "White Nights" is poetic and profoundly moving. It is a hymn to youth, to spring, to love, and to their power to transform worldly reality.