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humanoid-lovers · 6 years

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it is spelled out by his portrayal of different characters and made convincing by how the reader identifies with and understands A very thought provoking portrait of combating and extreme personalities. As in all Dostoevsky's works, there is a very clear message; it is spelled out by his portrayal of different characters and made convincing by how the reader identifies with and understands both the evil and good present in the characters. Go to Amazon

Doestoevky's Demons are still around Demons was more difficult to follow than Dostoevsky's other works. There are numerous characters that make minor appearances that come and go in the first half of the novel. Once you get the characters straightened out, the novel becomes engrossing. Dostoevsky is a master of plot structure and characterization. The intricacy and unfolding of the plot are well worth the time it takes to organize who's who. The main character, Stavrogin, presents a mysterious influence over the other characters and throughout the novel. Pyotr Stepanovich is the most relatable to today because of his overt hatred and nihilism. Dostoevsky's prescience and understanding of evil are unparalleled when comparing his stories to the actual history that occurred after his time. Go to Amazon

You must read Russian Warning--this is the Russian edition of Dostoevsky's master work written in 1871-72. It is a combination political plot revolutionary terrorism and characters who test their rational free will and another who wishes to replace Christ with himself. It is one of Dostoevsky's masterpieces, written after The Idiot and before "The Raw Youth," which was followed by the Brothers Karamazov. Go to Amazon

Fyodor haz teh Psych Chops Most of my life I have dealt with families distorted by addiction or personality disorders. While I entirely understand and appreciate that there is FAR more to this and to "The Brothers K." than psychology, yet I am dazzled at the accuracy of Dostoyevsky's depiction of such things and his weaving them into wonderful stories. Go to Amazon

Dostoyevsky's Demons Clarified When I read previous translations of Demons, the titles always were The Possessed, so in each case the translators obscured the novel's meaning. Now, I think, after reading Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky's translation, I have been set straight. The demons, in part, are Puskin's goblins and witches, but in a much greater sense they are the lies (rationalism, materialism, anarchism, nihilism, atheism) that enter a man and woman's soul, and like the demons that came out of the man and entered the swine in Luke's Gospel, they drive the man or woman to destruction. Dostoyevsky connects the liberal idealists and freethinkers of 1840's Russia (they are the fathers and mothers) with the Nihilist Revolutionaries of the 1860's. He predicted the Bolshevik Revolution forty years before it happened, because he understood the essence of the revolutionary movement was not social Christianity but Nihilist destruction, from "unlimited freedom it would turn into unlimited despotism." Nikolai Stavrogin stands at the center of the novel, a sensualist, both good and evil, but more evil than good, because evil gives more pleasure. His demon is the thrill some find in danger, sadism, and moral depravity. Stavrogin is strikingly handsome and a taciturn aristocrat, so he is not without glamor. He is mentor to Ivan Shatov, a reformed Nihilist revolutionary, to Pyotr Verkhovensky, the Nihilist revolutionary leader, and to Kirillov, the man-godhead. The novel begins with Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky's story, he a liberal of the `40's who continues his rant under the sponsorship of Varvara Petrovna, Stravogin's mother, in a Russian provincial town, where Pyotr Verkhovensky, Stepan Trofimovich's abandoned son, decides to test his Nihilist theories. I never paid much attention to Stepan Trofimovich's story before, but I did this time, as I did to the point of view of the novel's narrator-chronicler, a settler in the provincial town. I read the novel as a coherent whole, not a shipshod piece like before. Memorable female characters include Marya Ignatievna, a cripple half-wit, married to Stravogin on a whim, Lizaveta Nikolaevna Tushin, infatuated with Stavrogin, and Darya Pavlovna (Dasha) Shatov, devoted to Stavrogin. The Foreward and End Notes to the novel are excellent. Humor comes from such unexpected people as Fedka the Convict, an evil soul Dostoyevsky knew well, having spent ten years in a Siberian prison and in exile for his "revolutionary activities." Demons affected me tremendously. Its intellectual power enveloped me in realization after realization Go to Amazon

Nice quality! ... attention as the Brothers K and this is the best translation. In fact Four Stars The Dangers of Nihilism This is an absorbing novel, full of extreme and ... It’s a book! Marvelous Dostoevsky! Five Stars Five Stars Five Stars

#Larissa Volokhonsky: 9780375411229: Amazon.com: Books

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