Greece Hotels Travel - Demons (Everyman's Library, 182)
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List Price: $25.00
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Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 891.733
EAN: 9780375411229
ISBN: 0375411224
Label: Everyman's Library
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 733
Publication Date: 2000-10-24
Publisher: Everyman's Library
Release Date: 2000-10-24
Studio: Everyman's Library
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Editorial Reviews:
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The award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky continue their acclaimed series of Dostoevsky translations with this novel, also known as The Possessed.
Inspired by the true story of a political murder that horrified Russians in 1869, Dostoevsky conceived of Demons as a "novel-pamphlet" in which he would say everything about the plague of materialist ideology that he saw infecting his native land. What emerged was a prophetic and ferociously funny masterpiece of ideology and murder in prerevolutionary Russia--a novel that is rivalled only by The Brothers Karamazov as Dostoevsky's greatest.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Polemical Treasure
Comment: Seldom do writers come as close to prophesy as Dostoevsky does in this sensational and provocative attack on his leftist contemporaries. Ripped from the headlines of the 1860s, Demons captures, examines and ultimately condemns the radical forces that were set to devour millions of Russia souls in the early 20th century. Dostoevsky matches his contempt for these foes of Slavic society with an unswerving and vicious sense of humor, and in doing so, creates one of the truly great masterpieces of world literature.
The novel's chaotic, however. Moreover, it's slow to develop and even a structural mess, insofar as "the proper structure of a novel" goes, and like Melville, Dostoevsky feels free to introduce characters only to discard them at will. But as I read through this wild tale, the lucidity of the writer's intent, the drama, and the outrageous sense of parody--all of this felt improvisational, live and "in the moment"--more than compensated for Dostoevsky's fuzzy story arc.
It's a literary roast. That's why America's far left, so dominant in academic and literati circles, shuns it; the truth hurts when it's unpleasant and it's aimed at you.
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Godless Radicals Get Their Due
Comment: Demons is an okay read that goes on "forever". After 450 pages, the plot finally begins to warm up after a riot starts over a truthful, amusing, rabble-rousing speech at a society dame's ball. After this event, murders among radicals occur because they do not want anyone snitching on them for passing out illegal political tracts which will get them put on a cattle car straight to a Siberian prison camp for dissidents. Before that, we go from parlor to parlor and it's all talk, talk, talk that seems pointless.
Dostoyevsky enjoys skewering the radical chic of the "limousine liberals" of his day. -- Are they truly sincere in their beliefs or do they just hold "fashionable opinions" as a pretty façade? A silly rich couple represents these types of liberals, Stephan Trofinovich and Varvara Petrovna. Stephan is an effeminate, lightheaded, third-rate, intellectual has-been who enjoys spicing up his native tongue with French phrases to prove his pedigree. In the end, he gives up his godless ways and returns to godly sanity on his deathbed. "Demons" refer to those who have become "possessed" by diabolical, radical ideas which drive them to insanity, amorality, and mayhem.
The author also likes to poke fun at the propriety of an upper class woman named Yulia Michailnova. She attempts to sympathize with radicals to keep them from going over the edge, but is mortified with shame when a ball she gives is ruined by rabblerousing speeches that cause a scene and damage her reputation as a society dame. Another funny scene in which good manners and propriety are broken is when an old general is actually pulled by the nose by a young man after he uses his frequent insincere expression "Well, I will be pulled by the nose".
Pyotr Stepanovich is an implacable, amoral radical who cynically manipulates other radicals to kill potential informers to keep the cause going and to keep them from prison. He is like a devil that uses ideology to cover for the suffering he likes to create for its own sake.
Of course with Dostoyevsky, the godless radicals get their due by death by their own hand or someone else's, or by imprisonment. He could not see that life could be meaningful or moral without God. Without God, radical nihilism and mayhem rear their ugly heads.
The names in the novel keep changing for the same character and there are a lot of characters to keep up with. This leads to confusion as to who is who and what they did or said, so it is hard to follow the plot. It takes a long time to figure out what the author's point is. The novel is too long. I guess the upper class had a lot of time to talk and read in the author's era, so that is why the book is so long. You may need a good professor to walk you through this novel.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not easy to read
Comment: Although the reading is difficult at times, if you can think past that you realize there are some profound psychological and philosophical issues being discussed. For me languages do not get any harder than Russian. As you might surmise from the title this is about a crime (murder). This allows the author to share the characters motivation and conscious with us. Even though the murderer premeditatedly killed two people viciously, you spend so much time in his mind you start to like him. Most books I usually imagine a Hollywood character, this story is no different. The detective I thought of as TV Detective Colombo , but I had to imagine a Russian Columbo which wasn't easy. The Colombo character in the book played the "I'm not so smart, I'm just guessing character." I have nothing really to base this on but I really think there might be a better translation, because this seemed at times a little corny, but still interesting.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Evil defined
Comment: What do evil men with emotions admire the most? It's not about ideology, making society better or any -isms... Discovering why Pyotor worshipped Stavrogin was a big "wow" moment for me when it was revealed in the last chapter. This is a tragic novel that will stay with you for a long time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: great
Comment: Better than the Brothers K. but you must get past the first 200 pages, which can be confusing.
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