A masterful translation of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s rollicking novel that examines the effect of a charismatic but unscrupulous self-styled revolutionary leader on a group of credulous followers—from “the premier Russian-to-English translators of the era” (The New Yorker)
“[Pevear and Volokhonsky] capture the feverishly intense, personal explosions of activity and emotion that manifest themselves in Russian life.”—The New York Times Book Review
Inspired by the true story of a political murder that horrified Russia in 1869, Fyodor 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 he emerged with in 1872 was at once his darkest novel until The Brothers Karamazov and his most ferociously funny. For alongside its relentlessly escalating plot of conspiracy and assassination, Demons (which earlier translators erroneously titled The Possessed) is a blistering comedy of ideas run amok. And, like all of Dostoevsky’s novels, it is also a riot of literary voices, whose profusion, energy, and variety are rendered wonderfully in this English version.
“[An] admirable new translation of…Dostoevsky’s masterpiece.” –New York Review of Books
“The merit in this edition of Demons resides in the technical virtuosity of the translators…They capture the feverishly intense, personal explosions of activity and emotion that manifest themselves in Russian life.” –New York Times Book Review
“Demons is the Dostoevsky novel for our age…[Pevear and Volokhonsky] have managed to capture and differentiate the characters’ many voices…They come into their own when faced with Dostoevsky’s wonderfully quirky use of varied speech patterns…A capital job of restoration.” –Los Angeles Times
With an Introduction by Richard Pevear
Fyodor Mikailovich Dostoevsky’s life was as dark and dramatic as the great novels he wrote. He was born in Moscow in 1821. A short first novel, Poor Folk (1846), brought him instant success, but his writing career was cut short by his arrest for alleged subversion against Tsar Nicholas I in 1849. His prison experiences coupled with his conversion to a profoundly religious philosophy formed the basis for his great novels. But it was his fortuitous marriage to Anna Snitkina, following a period of utter destitution brought about by his compulsive gambling, that gave Dostoevsky the emotional stability to complete Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1868–1869), The Possessed (1871–1872), and The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880). When Dostoevsky died in 1881, he left a legacy of masterworks that influenced the great thinkers and writers of the Western world and immortalized him as a giant among writers of world literature.
View titles by Fyodor Dostoevsky
A masterful translation of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s rollicking novel that examines the effect of a charismatic but unscrupulous self-styled revolutionary leader on a group of credulous followers—from “the premier Russian-to-English translators of the era” (The New Yorker)
“[Pevear and Volokhonsky] capture the feverishly intense, personal explosions of activity and emotion that manifest themselves in Russian life.”—The New York Times Book Review
Inspired by the true story of a political murder that horrified Russia in 1869, Fyodor 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 he emerged with in 1872 was at once his darkest novel until The Brothers Karamazov and his most ferociously funny. For alongside its relentlessly escalating plot of conspiracy and assassination, Demons (which earlier translators erroneously titled The Possessed) is a blistering comedy of ideas run amok. And, like all of Dostoevsky’s novels, it is also a riot of literary voices, whose profusion, energy, and variety are rendered wonderfully in this English version.
Reviews
“[An] admirable new translation of…Dostoevsky’s masterpiece.” –New York Review of Books
“The merit in this edition of Demons resides in the technical virtuosity of the translators…They capture the feverishly intense, personal explosions of activity and emotion that manifest themselves in Russian life.” –New York Times Book Review
“Demons is the Dostoevsky novel for our age…[Pevear and Volokhonsky] have managed to capture and differentiate the characters’ many voices…They come into their own when faced with Dostoevsky’s wonderfully quirky use of varied speech patterns…A capital job of restoration.” –Los Angeles Times
With an Introduction by Richard Pevear
Author
Fyodor Mikailovich Dostoevsky’s life was as dark and dramatic as the great novels he wrote. He was born in Moscow in 1821. A short first novel, Poor Folk (1846), brought him instant success, but his writing career was cut short by his arrest for alleged subversion against Tsar Nicholas I in 1849. His prison experiences coupled with his conversion to a profoundly religious philosophy formed the basis for his great novels. But it was his fortuitous marriage to Anna Snitkina, following a period of utter destitution brought about by his compulsive gambling, that gave Dostoevsky the emotional stability to complete Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1868–1869), The Possessed (1871–1872), and The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880). When Dostoevsky died in 1881, he left a legacy of masterworks that influenced the great thinkers and writers of the Western world and immortalized him as a giant among writers of world literature.
View titles by Fyodor Dostoevsky
