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Demons (Penguin Classics)

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French cleverness …” he babbled suddenly, as though in a fever …“that’s false, it always has been. Why libel French cleverness? It’s I finish with the quote from the article by Rowan Williams: “What makes it (the Demons) so well worth reading now is its unsparing vision of what destructive forces come into the world when there is a vacuum of spiritual understanding. “ Semyon Yegorovich Karmazinov is Dostoevsky's literary caricature of his contemporary Ivan Turgenev, author of the proto-nihilist novel Fathers and Sons (1862). Of the same generation as Stepan Trofimovich, Karmazinov is a vain and pretentious literary has-been who shamelessly seeks to ingratiate himself with Pyotr Stepanovich and does much to promote the nihilists' legitimacy among the liberal establishment. [48]

And you know it all comes from that same half-bakedness, that sentimentality. They are fascinated, not by realism, but by the emotional ideal side of socialism, by the religious note in it, so to say, by the poetry of it… second-hand, of course. it was all so honourable. Suppose that something really happened … en Suisse… or was beginning. I was bound to question their heartsJoining Bridget Kendall to discuss Dostoevsky and his novel The Devils or Demons, is Tatyana Kovalevskaya, Professor at the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow and the author of the bilingual edition Fyodor Dostoevsky on the Dignity of the Human Person; Carol Apollonio, Professor of the Practice of Slavic and Eurasian Studies at Duke University in the United States and President of the International Dostoevsky Society; and Dr Sarah Hudspith, Associate Professor in Russian at the University of Leeds, and author of Dostoevsky and the idea of Russianness. Dostoevsky, Fyodor (1947). Stavrogin's Confession. Translated by Virginia Woolf; S. S. Koteliansky. In the afterword a psychoanalytic study of the author by Sigmund Freud. Lear Publishers. ASIN B000LDS1TI.

Fuertemente criticado por la sociedad literaria rusa en sus tiempo, Dostoievski mantuvo su posición, indicando que escribiría su libro “con fuego”, aunque lo acusaran de retrógrado. Es que en realidad, él comenzó a pertrechar el argumento de su libro a partir de un verdadero grupo nihilista (y aquí hacemos mención del término por primera vez), comandado por el revolucionario Sergéi Necháiev que alrededor de 1849 manda a asesinar a Ivanov, uno de sus miembros más por desobedecer sus órdenes que por soplón. Matters are further complicated by the arrival of a mysterious "crippled woman", Marya Lebyadkina, to whom Nikolai Vsevolodovich is also rumoured to be connected, although no-one seems to know exactly how. Este hecho ordena las ideas de Dostoievski para darle vidas a cuatro de los personajes más malvados, perversos y peligrosos que podamos encontrar en sus novelas. Y, ¿por qué digo esto? Básicamente, porque en sus otras novelas, encontramos tal vez un solo personaje que posee estas características. Podríamos citar al Príncipe Valkosvski de la novela Humillados y Ofendidos, en menor medida al pintoresco Fomá Fomich de Stepanchikovo, el problemático padre adoptivo de Arcadio Dolgoruki en El Adolescente y en cierto modo a Parfión Rogozhin en El Idiota. Demons ( pre-reform Russian: Бѣсы; post-reform Russian: Бесы, tr. Bésy, IPA: [ˈbʲe.sɨ]; sometimes also called The Possessed or The Devils) is a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, first published in the journal The Russian Messenger in 1871–72. It is considered one of the four masterworks written by Dostoevsky after his return from Siberian exile, along with Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). Demons is a social and political satire, a psychological drama, and large-scale tragedy. Joyce Carol Oates has described it as "Dostoevsky's most confused and violent novel, and his most satisfactorily 'tragic' work." [1] According to Ronald Hingley, it is Dostoevsky's "greatest onslaught on Nihilism", and "one of humanity's most impressive achievements—perhaps even its supreme achievement—in the art of prose fiction." [2]

CHAPTER IX. A RAID AT STEPAN TROFIMOVITCH’S

But the nihilist/anarchist portion of the novel, though undoubtedly the best part of it, only takes up about a quarter of the book, if that. I must declare in advance that my system is not yet complete… I became lost in my own data and my conclusion contradicts the original premiss from which I started. Beginning with the idea of unlimited freedom, I end with unlimited despotism. I must add, however, there can be no other solution to the social problem except mine.” For the male characters, it means a competition in a lethal show-down in the manner of Macbeth’s last scenes. Who has the greatest soul, who dies in the most visibly dramatic way? Curtain falls on the suffering women, who unfortunately have nothing to gain from that “virtue”. For “a woman is always a woman, even if she is a nun”. And that means she commits the crime of being lukewarm. Let’s spit her out!

In late 1860s Russia there was an unusual level of political unrest caused by student groups influenced by liberal, socialist, and revolutionary ideas. In 1869, Dostoevsky conceived the idea of a 'pamphlet novel' directed against the radicals. He focused on the group organized by young agitator Sergey Nechayev, particularly their murder of a former comrade—Ivan Ivanov—at the Petrovskaya Agricultural Academy in Moscow. Dostoevsky had first heard of Ivanov from his brother-in-law, who was a student at the academy, and had been much interested in his rejection of radicalism and exhortation of the Russian Orthodox Church and the House of Romanov as the true custodians of Russia's destiny. He was horrified to hear of Ivanov's murder by the Nechayevists, and vowed to write a political novel about what he called "the most important problem of our time." [10] Prior to this Dostoevsky had been working on a philosophical novel (entitled 'The Life of a Great Sinner') examining the psychological and moral implications of atheism. The political polemic and parts of the philosophical novel were merged into a single larger scale project, which became Demons. [11] As work progressed, the liberal and nihilistic characters began to take on a secondary role as Dostoevsky focused more on the amoralism of a charismatic aristocratic figure—Nikolai Stavrogin. [12] Humiliated and Insulted (aka The Insulted and Humiliated, The Insulted and the Injured, Injury and Insult) Stromberg, David (2012). "The Enigmatic G--v: A Defense of Narrator-Chronicler in Dostoevsky's Demons". The Russian Review. 71 (3): 460–81. Originally employed as a tutor to Stavrogina's son Nikolai Vsevolodovich, Stepan Trofimovich has been there for almost twenty years in an intimate but platonic relationship with his noble patroness. Praskovya and Liza arrive at the town, without Nikolai Vsevolodovich who has gone to Petersburg. According to Praskovya, Varvara Petrovna's young protégé Darya Pavlovna (Dasha), has also somehow become involved with Nikolai Vsevolodovich, but the details are ambiguous.First of all, a little note. I’ve read the book in Russian, and normally I would review it in Russian as well. But I think the Demons are unjustifiably overshadowed in the West by other Dostoevsky novels. So I wanted to write something to change the situation a bit. Going into his last pilgrimage, Stepan Trofimovich dies in a peasant hut on the hands of a rushed to him Varvara Petrovna. Before his death, a random fellow traveler, whom he tells of his entire life, reads him the Gospel, and he compares the possessed, from whom Christ cast out demons entered into the pigs, with Russia. This passage from the Gospel is taken by he reporter as one of the epigraphs to the novel.

Pyotr Stepanovich claims to be connected to the central committee of a vast, organized conspiracy to overthrow the government and establish socialism. He manages to convince his small group of co-conspirators that they are just one revolutionary cell among many, and that their part in the scheme will help set off a nationwide revolt. Pyotr Stepanovich is enamored of Stavrogin, and he tries desperately, through a combination of ensnarement and persuasion, to recruit him to the cause. The revolution he envisages will ultimately require a despotic leader, and he thinks that Stavrogin's strong will, personal charisma and "unusual aptitude for crime" [37] are the necessary qualities for such a leader. Pyotr Verkhovensky, according to Stavrogin, is "an enthusiast". [38] At every opportunity he uses his prodigious verbal abilities to sow discord and manipulate people for his own political ends. His greatest success is with the Governor's wife, and he manages to gain an extraordinary influence over her and her social circle. This influence, in conjunction with constant undermining of authority figures like his father and the Governor, is ruthlessly exploited to bring about a breakdown of standards in society.After an almost illustrious but prematurely curtailed academic career Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky is residing with the wealthy landowner Varvara Petrovna Stavrogina at her estate, Skvoreshniki, in a provincial Russian town. Dostoevsky, Fyodor (1994). A Writer's Diary: 1877-1881, Vol. 2. Edited and translated by Kenneth Lantz. Northwestern University Press. p.67. ISBN 9780810111011. pofida faptelor relatate în Demonii, cititorii nu-l pot antipatiza întru totul pe Stavroghin, cum nimeni din orășelul Skvoreșniki nu e dispus s-o facă. Maguire’s language seems a bit more formal, or ‘fussier’ than Katz’s; I believe both translators are American; at any rate their careers are. There always are some fashionable ideas and human beings, who can’t think indepedably, prefer to follow this fashion blindly and those people are eventually used by the others… They just become cat’s paw.

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