num_pages: 204
description: A Dostoevskian psychological novel of ideas, Novel with Cocaine explores the interaction between psychology, philosophy, and ideology in its frank portrayal of an adolescent's cocaine addiction. The story relates the formative experiences of Vadim at school and with women before he turns to drug abuse and the philosophical reflections to which it gives rise. Although Ageyev makes little explicit reference to the Revolution, the novel's obsession with addictive forms of thinking finds resonance in the historical background, in which "our inborn feelings of humanity and justice" provoke "the cruelties and satanic transgressions committed in its name.
language: English
title: Novel with Cocaine
titlecomplete: Novel with Cocaine (European Classics)
characters: Vadim Maslennikov,
genres: Classics, Adult, Russia, Novels, Russian Literature, 20th Century, Literature, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Fiction
ratings_count: 3036
places: Moscow, Soviet Union, Moscow, Petrograd Soviet, Moscow, Russian Empire
publisher: Northwestern University Press