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A review by sbbarnes
Die Dämonen by Fyodor Dostoevsky
4.0
Dostoevsky's Die Dämonen follows the descent of a small russian town into chaos following the arrival of certain unstable elements in town, at least according to the narrator. The story begins with Stepan Trofimowitsch and Warwara Petrowna, who have been living semi-peacefully for twenty-odd years in their little town. She is the big lady in town, a general's widow, and he was hired as a school-teacher for her son and the other small children in the area. He has since been living off of her as her pet academic, and their relationship is both painfully earnest and tumultuous. He is consistently overwhelmed by his feelings; she is consistently buttoned-up and enraged.
The arrival of both their sons, Nikolaj and Pjotr, throws the town into uproar. Nikolaj has made no friends in town; on his last visit he led a guy around by his nose, which has led to him being deemed insane. There are also rumors that he has slept with everybody's wife and daughter, and I do mean everybody's. This is further confused by persistent rumors that he has secretly married the mentally extremely unstable Marja, whose brother is therefor being paid off to keep it a secret.
Meanwhile, everyone who is anyone in town is embroiled in the secret plot of the international revolutionary society who might be socialist? It was hard to follow, because they had no clear ideology and were mainly just against things. But once you're in, you're stuck, as Shatow has realized. Shatow has tried to leave this society, but they won't let him, aiming instead to kill him.
The string-puller behind everything is Pjotr. Pjotr is the one who recruited everyone, he is the one ingratiating himself ceaselessly around town with the governor's wife and the governor himself, leading to the governor's mental illness. He visits a variety of people several times over, including Shatow, to threaten him. Also Kirillow, who is convinced that to prove there is no god and that man is therefor in charge of his own fate, he must shoot himself. He has however made a pact with the society that he will do it to take the fall for some crime of theirs. And also Nikolaj. Nikolaj ist a very very interesting character in that he appears to be an early version of a psychopath?
After reading up on this book after reading it, I now know that the chapter where he goes to a priest and confesses to seducing a twelve-year-old and then witnessing her suicide, which was kind of out of nowhere, was cut from the original because it was too risqué which does not surprise me even a little. He also confesses that he wants to seduce Lisa, whom everyone wanted him to marry before they knew he was married to Marya; that he is without remorse and without mental disability, he's just that much of a dick and it plagues him. Nontheless, Pjotr, Shatow and Shatow's sister all revere him as a sort of Messiah figure to the revolution, with the small difficulty that he could not care less about the revolution.
Not caring in general seems to be the problem. Neither Stepan nor Warwara cared all that much about their children: Stepan only met his son twice before these events, so it's not a great shocker that Stepan is one of the first victims of Pjotr's goal to wreak havoc through the whole town. And not caring is also the revolutionary society's problem; their meetings are disjointed and pointless because they don't really know what they are fighting for or against, only that Russia is not in a great place and they are all doomed so something must change. Shatow seems to be the only guy who cares, and he gets shot for it.
The last section is full of a lot of senseless death; Marya and her brother die; Lisa dies; Stepan dies, Shatow and Kirillow and Shatow's wife and the kid she had with Nikolaj and also Nikolaj all just...die. Some from suicide, Shatow is murdered, and quite a lot just get fevers and die from the excitement of it all? idk, it's a 19th century novel, getting wet is basically a death sentence.
Questions I have left:
-The narrator knows everything. I mean, everything. Lots of events he was present for, but mostly events he was not present for. Occasionally he mentions having talked to people in the aftermath but mostly it seems like he just steps out for a bit and lets an omniscient narrator take the reins -- until he is suddenly directly involved, like with the bits relating to Stepan and the Governor's wife.
-Nikolaj Stawrogin's psychopathology thing and how it matches the rest of the book. Unless Pjotr is also supposed to be a psychopath which I would believe instantly because he's terrible. There's a lot of mental infirmity in general, but Stawrogin's is specifically not caring about stuff. Whereas everyone else seems to care an awful lot about him.
- everyone is apprehended but Pjotr, which sucks, because he is the worse
-what is the tone of this book? Is it comic? Some bits definitely are, and Dostoevsky himself called Pjotr a somewhat comic figure. The whole leading around by the nose bit is, Stepan's scenes are. But it's also a tragedy, and a prophecy, and all sorts of things.
The arrival of both their sons, Nikolaj and Pjotr, throws the town into uproar. Nikolaj has made no friends in town; on his last visit he led a guy around by his nose, which has led to him being deemed insane. There are also rumors that he has slept with everybody's wife and daughter, and I do mean everybody's. This is further confused by persistent rumors that he has secretly married the mentally extremely unstable Marja, whose brother is therefor being paid off to keep it a secret.
Meanwhile, everyone who is anyone in town is embroiled in the secret plot of the international revolutionary society who might be socialist? It was hard to follow, because they had no clear ideology and were mainly just against things. But once you're in, you're stuck, as Shatow has realized. Shatow has tried to leave this society, but they won't let him, aiming instead to kill him.
The string-puller behind everything is Pjotr. Pjotr is the one who recruited everyone, he is the one ingratiating himself ceaselessly around town with the governor's wife and the governor himself, leading to the governor's mental illness. He visits a variety of people several times over, including Shatow, to threaten him. Also Kirillow, who is convinced that to prove there is no god and that man is therefor in charge of his own fate, he must shoot himself. He has however made a pact with the society that he will do it to take the fall for some crime of theirs. And also Nikolaj. Nikolaj ist a very very interesting character in that he appears to be an early version of a psychopath?
After reading up on this book after reading it, I now know that the chapter where he goes to a priest and confesses to seducing a twelve-year-old and then witnessing her suicide, which was kind of out of nowhere, was cut from the original because it was too risqué which does not surprise me even a little. He also confesses that he wants to seduce Lisa, whom everyone wanted him to marry before they knew he was married to Marya; that he is without remorse and without mental disability, he's just that much of a dick and it plagues him. Nontheless, Pjotr, Shatow and Shatow's sister all revere him as a sort of Messiah figure to the revolution, with the small difficulty that he could not care less about the revolution.
Not caring in general seems to be the problem. Neither Stepan nor Warwara cared all that much about their children: Stepan only met his son twice before these events, so it's not a great shocker that Stepan is one of the first victims of Pjotr's goal to wreak havoc through the whole town. And not caring is also the revolutionary society's problem; their meetings are disjointed and pointless because they don't really know what they are fighting for or against, only that Russia is not in a great place and they are all doomed so something must change. Shatow seems to be the only guy who cares, and he gets shot for it.
The last section is full of a lot of senseless death; Marya and her brother die; Lisa dies; Stepan dies, Shatow and Kirillow and Shatow's wife and the kid she had with Nikolaj and also Nikolaj all just...die. Some from suicide, Shatow is murdered, and quite a lot just get fevers and die from the excitement of it all? idk, it's a 19th century novel, getting wet is basically a death sentence.
Questions I have left:
-The narrator knows everything. I mean, everything. Lots of events he was present for, but mostly events he was not present for. Occasionally he mentions having talked to people in the aftermath but mostly it seems like he just steps out for a bit and lets an omniscient narrator take the reins -- until he is suddenly directly involved, like with the bits relating to Stepan and the Governor's wife.
-Nikolaj Stawrogin's psychopathology thing and how it matches the rest of the book. Unless Pjotr is also supposed to be a psychopath which I would believe instantly because he's terrible. There's a lot of mental infirmity in general, but Stawrogin's is specifically not caring about stuff. Whereas everyone else seems to care an awful lot about him.
- everyone is apprehended but Pjotr, which sucks, because he is the worse
-what is the tone of this book? Is it comic? Some bits definitely are, and Dostoevsky himself called Pjotr a somewhat comic figure. The whole leading around by the nose bit is, Stepan's scenes are. But it's also a tragedy, and a prophecy, and all sorts of things.