The Adolescent

“The Adolescent” is Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s 1875 novel which tells the story of the life of a 19-year-old intellectual, Arkady Dolgoruky, and his conflict with his father. Arkady is the illegitimate child of the controversial and womanizing landowner Versilov and was raised by one of Versilov’s serf, the pious Makar Dolgoruky. The novel’s primary tension arises between Arkady and Versilov, when Arkady becomes an adult and joins Versilov’s family in St. Petersburg. Arkady has been away at boarding school for many years and hardly knows this wealthy and dysfunctional family. As he comes to learn more about them, his dreams of an easy, wealthy life are tested and he becomes embroiled in the scandalous affairs of his father. Arkady rebels against his father’s expectations and soon becomes entangled with social agitators and a mysterious young lady. Rich with the depictions of the complex psychological, emotional, and moral conflicts that plague the human condition and are so common to the characters of Dostoyevsky’s work, “The Adolescent” is a classic and thought-provoking work by one of the world’s greatest authors. This edition includes a biographical afterword.