Demons (Penguin Classics)

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The action of the novel is set in a provincial town in the early autumn. The events are described by the reporter, who is also a participant of the events described. His story begins with the story of Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovenskii, the idealist of the forties, and of his complex platonic relationship with Varvara Petrovna Stavrogin - a provincial noble lady, whose patronage he enjoyed. Robert Maguire was a professor of Slavic languages. He produced translations from Polish and Russian. He was an expert on Gogol. Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky is a refined and high-minded intellectual who unintentionally contributes to the development of nihilistic forces, centering on his son Pyotr Stepanovich and former pupil Nikolai Stavrogin, that ultimately bring local society to the brink of collapse. The character is Dostoevsky's rendering of an archetypal liberal idealist of the 1840s Russian intelligentsia, and is based partly on Timofey Granovsky and Alexander Herzen. [21]

They are hollow men, men of paper but united, they turn into a disturbed wasp nest or a skein of venomous snakes… sign of the cross on his pillow that he might not die in the night.… Je m’en souviens. Enfin, no artistic feeling whatever, not a sign ofInstead of belief in God, Stavrogin has rationality, intellect, self-reliance, and egoism, but the spiritual longing and sensual ardour of his childhood, over-stimulated by his teacher Stepan Trofimovich, has never left him. [59] [60] Unfettered by fear or morality, his life has become a self-centred experiment and a heartless quest to overcome the torment of his growing ennui. [61] The most striking manifestation of his dilemma is in the dialogue with Tikhon, where we find him, perhaps for the only time, truthfully communicating his inner state. In this dialogue there is an alternation in his speech between the stern, worldly voice of rational self-possession and the vulnerable, confessional voice of the lost and suffering soul. [62] [63]

Burnett, Leon (2000). "Dostoevskii". In Olive Classe (ed.). Encyclopedia of Literary Translation Into English. Vol.A–L. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. p.66. France, Peter (2000). "Dostoevsky". In Peter France (ed.). The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation. Oxford University Press. p.598. to develop the characters that are essential later in the novel. ( Refer to "Character Analysis" for more details). There comes a long-awaited day of the festival. The highlight of the program is a reading of a famous writer Karmazinov his farewell "Merci", and then diatribe of Stepan Trofimovich. He passionately defends Raphael and Shakespeare from nihilists. His is booed and proudly removes from the scene. It becomes known that Lisa Tushino in daylight suddenly moved from her carriage, leaving Mauritius alone, into the Stavrogin’s carriage and drove off to his estate. Highlight of the second part of the festival is "quadrille of literature," ugly, grotesque allegorical action. The governor and his wife are beside themselves with indignation. Here is reported that the district is burning, allegedly set on fire by spies, later became known about murder of Captain Lebyadkin, his sister and the maid. Governor goes to the fire, where the log falls on him.Of Pyotr Verkhovensky, Dostoevsky said that the character is not a portrait of Nechayev but that "my aroused mind has created by imagination the person, the type, that corresponds to the crime... To my own surprise he half turns out to be a comic figure." [72] Most of the nihilist characters associated with Pyotr Verkhovensky were based on individuals who appeared in the transcripts of the trial of the Nechayevists, which were publicly available and studied by Dostoevsky. The character of Shatov represents a Russian nationalist response to socialist ideas, and was initially based on Nechayev's victim Ivanov, but later on the contemporary slavophile ideas of Danilevsky [43] and to some extent on Dostoevsky's own reformed ideas about Russia.