The Devils - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Devils: The Possessed - Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

Member Name: nlingwood

Product:	Devils: The Possessed - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Date:	07/09/00 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Picture of a society falling apart

Disadvantages: Bleak, unrelenting

Perhaps the darkest and bleakest novel from a writer famour for his grim situations. Also known as The Possessed, the title reflects his view that Russia was in the grim of malicious forces - atheism and nihilism - carrying it towards the abyss. And, though he wrote in the 1870s, he was eventually proved to be correct.

The characters are all drawn into this destructive force, or powerless against it. The 'hero' Stavrogin is the best example of this: part of the young nihilist society, he at first seems to have more hope than his companions. But as Dostoyevsky draws us in we learn of crimes to make Rashkolnikov's insignificant. Only one character starts to find an alternative to the darkness, and builds up his hopes, but this just leads to another step towards evil.

The weakness of the book is that it is so unrelenting. Where Crime and Punishment or The Brothers Karamazov offers some redemption, the only answer found by Stavrogin is negative, the same denial as his victim. Dostoyevsky is also rather heavy on his political and social arguements, with one character - a writer seeking the support of this nihilists - representing his rival Turgenev. Although one of his great novels, it is far from the easiest, and certainly not for a beginner.

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