Saturday, September 26, 2009

Demons (formerly translated as The Possessed)

Finished reading Dostoevsky's "Demons" (1872) for my Russian lit class. I am huge fan of Dostoevsky, and although this is not my favorite of his works, it was still highly enjoyable. Set in a provincial Russian town in the late 19th century, "Demons" chronicles the banal intrigues of a band of revolutionary conspirators and the madness they incite in the townspeople. The novel is based in part on the real-life political murder of Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov and seeks to deride the various ideologies prominent at the time. Written about 50 years before the October Revolution, Dostoevsky's characterization of the revolutionaries is shockingly prophetic in some places.

Definitely recommend, particularly if you liked:
--"The Master and Margarita" (1940), by Mikhail Bulgakov, which is heavily influenced by this work
--"Petersburg" (1913, 1922), by Andrei Bely, also heavily influenced by Demons
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1 comment:

  1. BlogenburyMarch 28, 2015 at 2:17 PM

    I read this recently and liked it a lot. One of the huge surprises for me was that in this work, Dostoevsky uses satire and humor to mock some of his intellectual opponents - and he is FUNNY! The portrait of Turgenyev is laugh-out-loud funny and really brutal. The book was heavily censored and, because Dostoevsky had been publishing chapters in a serial, it made it difficult for him to smooth over some of the omissions. This may be partly why some parts were tough reading for me, but, again, Joseph Frank's masterful analysis helped smooth the way. Altogether, a terrific set of character studies, and a very effective attack upon Dostoevsky's intellectual opponents.

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