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  • Published: 4 November 2021
  • ISBN: 9780099140016
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 768
  • RRP: $38.00
Categories:

Demons




The Great Russian novelist's disturbing and compelling study of terrorism, through five young men saturated in ideology and bent on destruction

'The most innovative and challenging writer of fiction in his generation in Russia' Guardian

Based on a real-life crime which horrified Russia in 1869, Dostoevsky intended his novel to castigate the fanaticism of his country's new political reformers, particularly those known as Nihilists. Blackly funny, grotesque and shocking, Demons is a disturbing portrait of five young men saturated in ideology and bent on destruction, and a compelling study of terrorism.

'Marvellous...a fluid and well-paced translation' Observer

  • Published: 4 November 2021
  • ISBN: 9780099140016
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 768
  • RRP: $38.00
Categories:

Other books in the series

A Dog's Heart
The Black Tulip
The Lady of the Camellias
Selected Poetry
On Sparta
Man and Superman
Saint Joan
Botchan
Kusamakura
Love
Annals
Selected Poems
Military Dispatches

About the authors

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky was born in Moscow on 11th November 1821. He had six siblings and his mother died in 1837 and his father in 1839. He graduated from the St Petersburg Academy of Military Engineering in 1846 but decided to change careers and become a writer. His first book, Poor Folk, did very well but on 23rd April 1849 he was arrested for subversion and sentenced to death. After a mock-execution his sentence was commuted to hard labour in Siberia where he developed epilepsy.He was released in 1854. His 1860 book, The House of the Dead was based on these experiences. In 1857 he married Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva. After his release he adopted more conservative and traditional values and rejected his previous socialist position. In the following years he spent a lot of time abroad, struggled with an addiction to gambling and fell deeply in debt. His wife died in 1864 and he married Anna Grigoryeva Snitkina. In the following years he published his most enduring and successful books, includingCrime and Punishment (1865). He died on 9th February 1881.

Praise for Demons

Required reading for anyone who wants to understand the mind of the terrorist

Sunday Times

Marvellous...fluid and well-paced translation

Observer

Volokhonsky's and Pevear's translation brings to the surface all of Dostoevsky's subtle linguistic and nationalist humour, and the copious notes are indispensable for making one's way through the thicket of 19th-century Russian politics

Kirkus Reviews

An outstanding achievement

John Bayley

As close to Dostoevsky's Russian as is possible in English

Chicago Tribune