The Devils: The Possessed

Fyodor M. Dostoevsky

Penguin, 1971 - Fiction - 704 pages

In The Devils Dostoyevsky created a chilling and prophetic story of revolutionaries and nihilists plotting the overthrow of the Russian government and the downfall of the Russian church. It focuses on the complex and tormented character of Stavrogin, a desperate man whose loss of faith makes him dangerous. Believing he is beyond guilt and remorse, he commits terrible crimes, infects others with ideas he does not believe in and accepts love he does not deserve. Yet Stavrogin is only one of a small band of rebels whose hunger for a more democratic, Western system threatens the fabric of Russian society, and The Devils is a brilliant psychological analysis of a group of people possessed by a destructive passion for revolution.

What people are saying

Review: The Devils

User Review  - Jeremy - Goodreads

The quality and mastery of Dostoevsky's vision, and his use of character and plot and pacing, are all on display in this marvelous work. It's true that perhaps it doesn't hold together as strongly as ...

Review: Devils (Wordsworth Classics)

User Review  - Bethan - Goodreads

A huge, deeply disturbing and creepy novel. The madness and lunacy of people and the appalling poverty of life, physically, mentally and emotionally, is covered here. Stavrogin seems sociopathically ...

Contents

• I: vii
• II: 21
• III: 53
• IV: 92
• V: 135
• VI: 167
• VII: 215
• IX: 263
• X: 287
• XI: 299
• XII: 322
• XIII: 346
• XIV: 389
• XV: 414
• XVI: 424
• XVII: 434
• XVIII: 458
• XIX: 487
• XX: 516
• XXI: 537
• XXII: 561
• XXIII: 592
• XXIV: 625
• XXV: 657
• XXVI: 671

About the author

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881), one of nineteenth-century Russia's greatest novelists, spent four years in a convict prison in Siberia, after which he was obliged to enlist in the army. In later years his penchant for gambling sent him deeply into debt. Most of his important works were written after 1864, including Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov, all available from Penguin Classics.

David Magarshack was known for his many translations from his native Russian, including works by Dostoyevsky.

David Magarshack was known for his many translations from his native Russian, including works by Dostoyevsky.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Devils: The Possessed; Classics Series; Penguin classics
• Author: Fyodor M. Dostoevsky
• Translated by: Magarshack
• Contributor: Magarshack
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Penguin, 1971
• ISBN: 0140440356, 9780140440355
• Length: 704 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Literary; Fiction / Political; Literary Criticism / Russian & Former Soviet Union