num_pages: 720
description: In 1869 a young Russian was strangled, shot through the head and thrown into a pond. His crime? A wish to leave a small group of violent revolutionaries, from which he had become alienated. Dostoevsky takes this real-life catastophe as the subject and culmination of Devils, a title that refers to the young radicals themselves and also to the materialistic ideas that possessed the minds of many thinking people in Russian society at the time. The satirical portraits of the revolutionaries, with their naivety, ludicrous single-mindedness and readiness for murder and destruction, might seem exaggerated - until we consider their all-too-recognisable descendants in the real world ever since. The key figure in the novel, however is beyond politics. Nikolay Stavrogin, another product of rationalism run wild, exercises his charisma with ruthless authority and total amorality. His unhappiness is accounted for when he confesses to a ghastly sexual crime - in a chapter long suppressed by the censor. This prophetic account of modern morals and politics, with its fifty-odd characters, amazing events and challenging ideas, is seen by some critics as Dostoevsky's masterpiece.Translated by Constance Garnett, with an additional chapter translated by Richard Nicholson ; with an introduction by A.D.P. Briggs.
language: English
title: Devils
titlecomplete: Devils (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature)
characters: Liputin, Shigalyov, Stepan Trofimovitch Verhovensky, Varvara Stavrogina, Lizaveta Nikolaevna, Alexei Nilych Kirilov, Captain Lebyadkin, Pyotr Stepanovich Verkhovensky, Ivan Shatov, Nikolai Vsevolodovich Stavrogin
genres: Fiction, Russian Literature, 19th Century, Classics, Politics, Philosophy, Classic Literature, Russia, Literature, Novels
ratings_count: 49559
places: Russia
publisher: Wordsworth Editions