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Classic FictionHas anyone here read Dostoevsky's Demons?
I'm hooked. So much in it that feels relevant to our time, like the death of nations discussion ("It is a sign of the decay of nations when they begin to hold gods in common."), the amorality of Stavrogin and the description of the young radicals (paraphrase, but "their biggest shame is having their own opinions" - doesn't that sound familiar?).
Roughly halfway through and I know I will need to read it at least once more to fully get it, but I wonder if anyone here has read it and has any thoughts on it? It seems to be hard to get hold of in physical copy so must be a bit out of favour and overshadowed by his other works. Perhaps it's seen as a bit old hat as it mostly foreshadows the Russian Revolution - but I think it holds some fundamental truths about all revolutions, and given it feels like we're living through a thought revolution...
Yes. I read it back in the 1980s or 1990s, and it made zero impresion on me then. I thought it was dull and pointless compared to C&P or BK. I read it again in 2020, and I felt like I was having a panic attack throughout it , particularly when the leader was talking about their (the conspirators) plans for humanity.
It feels like another one of those books that wasn't meant that way but somehow has been taken as a how-to, doesn't it? Shigalev's radical new world order... is just Russia under serfdom, again.
I read BK a few years ago and it nearly drove me mad, I couldn't make head or tail of it until I'd read it two or three times.
It's been 14 years for me and I'm still waiting for someone to ELI5 me the Grand Inquisitor.
I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition! (But seriously, challenge accepted - if I figure it out, I will let you know. This is probably going to be like that time I read Little Dorrit convinced I was going to understand it. Spoiler: I don't think Dickens understood it.)
I heard Dickens was paid by the word and that's more or less the explanation behind scenes such as the ones involving spontaneous human combustion in Bleak House.
Same, I read C&P, BK, and Demons as a teenager and I have fuck all memory of the novella.
I read it again in 2020, and I felt like I was having a panic attack throughout it , particularly when the leader was talking about their (the conspirators) plans for humanity.
...but maybe I'll give it a reread.
Literally the ONLY thing I remembered from my first reading was the guy walking on his hands at the big gala event, towards the end of the book.
No, but will look out for it. I loved Dostoevsky as a teenager. Well overdue a revisit.
Pevear and Volokhosky have a new translation out. I'm reading it right now--this is really my first experience with Russian literature. I'm not even halfway through part 1, but he characterizes these revolutionaries perfectly. It is a peculiar delight to see the same human nature through the looking glass of time. People are the same, material circumstance is different.
Hearing there's a translation by P&V, whose Brothers Karamazov trans. I've read, makes me more likely to read this soon, so thanks for mentioning it!
I always wanted to try more Russian literature myself. I started to read Crime and Punishment, but ended up putting it down about halfway through for some reason. I think that may be Dostoevsky also, but can't remember now. I did enjoy it, but the translation was a bit rough. The characters were very interesting though.
Yes, his characterisations are fantastic. I didn't know there was a new translation, maybe I will read that when I finish mine (I think I'm on quite an early translation).