Devils

Acesta este romanul Devils al lui Dostoevsky, într-o ediție cu introducere de A.D.P. Briggs și traducere de Constance Garnett.

Subiectul romanului

In 1869 a young Russian was strangled, shot through the head and thrown into a pond. His crime was a wish to leave a small group of violent revolutionaries, from which he had become alienated. Dostoevsky takes this real-life catastrophe as the subject and culmination of Devils.

Titlul și temele

The title refers to the young radicals themselves and also to the materialistic ideas that possessed the minds of many thinking people in Russian society at the time. The satirical portraits of the revolutionaries, with their naivety, ludicrous single-mindedness and readiness for murder and destruction, might seem exaggerated. However, their all-too-recognizable descendants in the real world ever since suggest otherwise.

Personajul central

The key figure in the novel is beyond politics. Nikolay Stavrogin, another product of rationalism run wild, exercises his charisma with ruthless authority and total amorality. His unhappiness is accounted for when he confesses to a ghastly sexual crime, in a chapter long suppressed by the censor.

Caracteristici

• Peste cincizeci de personaje (fifty-odd characters)
• Evenimente uimitoare (amazing events)
• Idei provocatoare (challenging ideas)
• Caracter profetic asupra moravurilor și politicii moderne

Recepție critică

Some critics see this prophetic account of modern morals and politics as Dostoevsky's masterpiece.