The Devils (novel)
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Devils, also translated as Demons or The Possessed, is a 1872 novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The Possessed is an earlier translation, made famous by Constance Garnett's version, but is somewhat inaccurate; the original Russian title refers to the demoniac possessors rather the possessed.
An extremely political book, it is a testimony of the life of Imperial Russia in the late 19th century.
As the revolutionary democrats begin to arise in Russia, different ideals begin to collide, all of them exposed in this book, where the author shows his disgust for the left-wing idealists.
The book has four main characters: Verkhovensky, Shatov, Stavrogin and Tikhon. Through their ideas, Dostoyevsky describes the political chaos arising in Russia.
The Devils is a combination of two separate novels that Dostoevsky was working on. One was a commentary on the real-life murder by a revolutionary group of one of its own members The character Verkhovensky is based upon the leader of this revolutionary group, a man known as Nechaev. The other novel which was eventually melded into The Devils was originally a religious work. The amoralist character Stavrogin was to be the hero of this novel, and is now commonly viewed as the most important character in The Devils.
A recursive topic treated in this book is that of the Salvation of Mankind.
Important characters
- Nicolas Stavrogin is the main character of the novel, a complex figure, he has several inhuman traits about him that resemble a vampire in literature.
- Stepan Verkhovensky is the philosopher and intellectual that is partly to blame for the revolutionary ideas that fuel the destruction that occurs in the book. He served as a father figure to Nicolas when Stavrogin was a child.
- Peter Verkhovensky is the son of Stepan and the cause of much of the destruction. He plays at being a true believer revolutionary though his only goal is to have power.
- Shatov is a son of former serf at the Stavrogin, former university student and another intellectual who has turned his back on his leftist ideas.
- Kirilov is Russian engineer who has been driven insane by the thoughts of God and life after death.
- Ms. Stavrogin is Nicolas's mother and is an rich lady who plays at being leftist.
- Captain Lebyatkin is the drunken former officer who's sister is secretly married to Nicolas.
- Bishop Tikhon is a saintly character, similar to the Elder Zosima from The Brothers Karamazov. In Dostoevksy's original drafts, Stavrogin visited the Bishop for guidance. Their interview has little effect on Stavrogin, but provides the reader a better understanding of his background. However, this chapter was not accepted by the censors and Dostoevsky excised it from the original version, in which Bishop Tikhon does not exist. Most modern editions of The Possessed include this chapter in an appendix.
See also
External links
- Free eBook of The Possessed (The Devils) (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/8117) at Project Gutenberg
