Demons

"One of humanity’s most impressive achievements — perhaps even its supreme achievement — in the art of prose fiction." —Ronald Hingley

"Dostoyevsky’s most confused and violent novel, and his most satisfyingly 'tragic' work." —Joyce Carol Oates

"Out of Shakespeare there is no more exciting reading." —Virginia Woolf


“Demons” is the third of Dostoyevsky’s five major novels. It is at once a powerful political tract and a profound study of atheism, depicting the disarray which follows the appearance of a band of modish radicals in a small provincial town. Dostoyevsky compares the radicals to the devils that drove the Gadarene swine over the precipice in his vision of a society possessed by demonic creatures that produce devastating delusions of rationality. The novel is full of buffoonery and grotesque comedy. The plot is loosely based on the details of a notorious case of political murder, but Dostoyevsky weaves suicide, rape, and a multiplicity of scandals into a compelling story of political evil.