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Demons (Everyman's Library, 182) Hardcover – October 24, 2000

4.7 out of 5 stars 1,084 ratings

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Presented here in stunning hardcover, Demons examines the effect of a charismatic but unscrupulous self-styled revolutionary leader on a group of credulous followers.

Inspired by the true story of a political murder that horrified Russians in 1869, Fyodor Dostoevsky conceived of
Demons as a “novel-pamphlet” in which he would say everything about the plague of materialist ideology that he saw infecting his native land. What emerged was a prophetic and ferociously funny masterpiece of ideology and murder in pre-revolutionary Russia—a novel that is rivaled only by The Brothers Karamazov as Dostoevsky’s greatest.

The award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky continue their acclaimed series of Dostoevsky translations with this novel, which is also known as
The Possessed.

With an introduction by Joseph Frank.

Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket. Everyman’s Library Classics include an introduction, a select bibliography, and a chronology of the author's life and times.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“[An] admirable new translation of...Dostoevsky’s masterpiece.” —New York Review of Books

“The merit in this edition of
Demons resides in the technical virtuosity of the translators.... They capture the feverishly intense, personal explosions of activity and emotion that manifest themselves in Russian life.” —New York Times Book Review

Demons is the Dostoevsky novel for our age...[Pevear and Volokhonsky] have managed to capture and differentiate the characters’ many voices.... They come into their own when faced with Dostoevsky’s wonderfully quirky use of varied speech patterns…A capital job of restoration.” —Los Angeles Times

From the Inside Flap

The award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky continue their acclaimed series of Dostoevsky translations with this novel, also known as The Possessed.

Inspired by the true story of a political murder that horrified Russians in 1869, Dostoevsky conceived of
Demons as a "novel-pamphlet" in which he would say everything about the plague of materialist ideology that he saw infecting his native land. What emerged was a prophetic and ferociously funny masterpiece of ideology and murder in prerevolutionary Russia--a novel that is rivalled only by The Brothers Karamazov as Dostoevsky's greatest.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Everyman's Library; Reprint edition (October 24, 2000)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 776 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0375411224
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0375411229
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.75 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 1.59 x 8.29 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars 1,084 ratings

About the author

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Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (/ˌdɒstəˈjɛfski, ˌdʌs-/; Russian: Фёдор Миха́йлович Достое́вский; IPA: [ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ dəstɐˈjɛfskʲɪj]; 11 November 1821 – 9 February 1881), sometimes transliterated Dostoevsky, was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. Dostoyevsky's literary works explore human psychology in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmosphere of 19th-century Russia. Many of his works are marked by a preoccupation with Christianity, explored through the prism of the individual confronted with life's hardships and beauty.

He began writing in his 20s, and his first novel, Poor Folk, was published in 1846 when he was 25. His major works include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). His output consists of 11 novels, three novellas, 17 short novels and numerous other works. Many literary critics rate him as one of the greatest psychologists in world literature. His 1864 novella Notes from Underground is considered to be one of the first works of existentialist literature.

Born in Moscow in 1821, Dostoyevsky was introduced to literature at an early age through fairy tales and legends, and through books by Russian and foreign authors. His mother died in 1837, when he was 15, and around the same time he left school to enter the Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute. After graduating, he worked as an engineer and briefly enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, translating books to earn extra money. In the mid-1840s he wrote his first novel, Poor Folk, which gained him entry into St. Petersburg's literary circles.

In the following years, Dostoyevsky worked as a journalist, publishing and editing several magazines of his own and later A Writer's Diary, a collection of his writings. He began to travel around western Europe and developed a gambling addiction, which led to financial hardship. For a time, he had to beg for money, but he eventually became one of the most widely read and highly regarded Russian writers. His books have been translated into more than 170 languages. Dostoyevsky influenced a multitude of writers and philosophers, from Anton Chekhov and Ernest Hemingway to Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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4.7 out of 5 stars
1,084 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers praise this translation as the best of Dostoyevsky's work and find it highly relevant to present-day issues, with one review noting its helpful historical context. The book is humorous and thought-provoking, with one customer describing it as a killer piece of introspection. However, customers disagree on the readability and character development, with some finding it engrossing while others consider it a chore to read, and some appreciating the characters while others find them difficult to relate to.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

21 customers mention "Translation quality"19 positive2 negative

Customers praise the translation of this Russian classic, noting it is among the best translations of Dostoyevsky's work.

"...Century Russian history by a masterful story writer, and an accomplished translator who in this edition is anonymous...." Read more

"...I enjoy the translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky though by including the actual French in the text where appropriate they continually remind me of..." Read more

"...The action takes place in the second part of the book. The writing is typical D, not some dry polemic I had feared, as I had read so much about..." Read more

"...to deliver, great quality binding, a beautiful hardcover and a great translation, brilliant." Read more

9 customers mention "Relevance"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the book highly relevant to present-day issues, with one customer noting its helpful historical notes and context, while others appreciate its political themes and insights into 19th century Russian society.

"A wonderful introduction to 19th Century Russian history by a masterful story writer, and an accomplished translator who in this edition is anonymous..." Read more

"...contains, for a nineteenth century novel, something surprisingly relevant to present day issues...." Read more

"...(Everyman's Library)]] Dostoevsky still managed to turn a highly political, extremely cerebral, and academically dense novel into something that, in..." Read more

"...It also had many helpful historical notes lending extra context (needed for the author's then contemporary references)...." Read more

7 customers mention "Thought provoking"7 positive0 negative

Customers find the book thought-provoking, with one describing it as a killer piece of introspection and another noting its excellent realism.

"A very thought provoking portrait of combating and extreme personalities...." Read more

"...Stavrogin is strikingly handsome and a taciturn aristocrat, so he is not without glamor...." Read more

"...the title, but had no idea that this book would be such a killer piece of introspection, description, philosophy, and character development...." Read more

"Firstly, Stavrogin's confession is a moment of profound self-reflection and reckoning...." Read more

7 customers mention "Value for money"7 positive0 negative

Customers find the book worth the effort and read.

"...book and it certainly makes you think and I believe it is well worth the effort to read. I highly recommend this book." Read more

"...others, the second reading was much more enjoyable and so very well worth the effort." Read more

"...Still, a translation such as this is worth having, because it includes the censored chapter, and has some useful footnotes...." Read more

"...A long book, but well worth the read if you like crime, mystery, and Russian literature in general!" Read more

4 customers mention "Humor"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book humorous, with one mentioning great comic scenes.

"...Here's something else rarely mentioned: Dostoevski had a great sense of humor. There are a number of great comic scenes, gags and zippy one-liners...." Read more

"...There's also humor, which many reviewers talk about, but this is mostly in the latter sections, where D satirizes the characters of the group that..." Read more

"...The Idiot" (my favorite) are more than compensated for by the wicked humor and pathos, as well as by more lovingly drawn characters, whilst both "..." Read more

"...you've never read Dostoevsky before, this is a good approach as it is funny and humorous." Read more

24 customers mention "Readability"15 positive9 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's readability, with some finding it engaging while others describe it as a chore to read.

"A wonderful introduction to 19th Century Russian history by a masterful story writer, and an accomplished translator who in this edition is anonymous..." Read more

"...There are alot of characters and the plot is a lot more involved than the current popular novels so this is certainly not a beach read...." Read more

"...I found it difficult to relate to the characters, difficult to understand, and difficult to keep track of everyone moving in and out of the story...." Read more

"...one of my favorite traits about this work is how well explained and logical all the evil ideas seem, but that which is pure and beautiful does not..." Read more

16 customers mention "Character development"8 positive8 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the characters in the book, with some finding them terrific while others find them difficult to relate to.

"...There are alot of characters and the plot is a lot more involved than the current popular novels so this is certainly not a beach read...." Read more

"...Making my way through Part 1 was a chore. I found it difficult to relate to the characters, difficult to understand, and difficult to keep track..." Read more

"...The great strength of Devils is its characters...." Read more

"...I had a hard time following some of the characters, but maybe that was just me, maybe not...." Read more

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2025
    A wonderful introduction to 19th Century Russian history by a masterful story writer, and an accomplished translator who in this edition is anonymous. I won’t forget this entertaining account of a society that is ready to crumble and morph into what became the Soviet Union and today is again only Russia.
  • Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2020
    I guess I am a Dostoevsky nerd since I first purchased the hard copy version and then recently the ebook version. As other reviewers have mentioned it is amazing how the author could predict the demons in our lives and the results they produced--not just in the short term but even up to the present. While not intended as a religious book (I think) he shows the results of taking God out of our lives -- it makes rooms for the demons. I enjoy the translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky though by including the actual French in the text where appropriate they continually remind me of my poor French fortunately they include the english as footnotes at the bottom of the page. They also include footnotes in the back of the book explaining items that might not be familiar to a casual reader. There are alot of characters and the plot is a lot more involved than the current popular novels so this is certainly not a beach read. I enjoyed the book and it certainly makes you think and I believe it is well worth the effort to read. I highly recommend this book.
    20 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2022
    Dostoevsky’s Demons contains, for a nineteenth century novel, something surprisingly relevant to present day issues.

    For those who don’t know the plot, it is a quintessentially Dostoevskean tale of saintly atheists and monks with deep understandings of human passions together with a large crew of rapscallions. The theme is primarily that of a need for Russia to return to a deep love of the Russian soil, the Russian Church and the “Russian” Christ to preserve it from descending into violent chaos. It’s heralded by some as prophetic of the coming of communism, but I would note that many of the “prophesied” activities of socialists and anarchists could be torn from the pages of a late nineteenth century newspaper and hardly needed a prophetic vision.

    The theme I found most interesting, and it may be entirely personal, is that Dostoevsky sees classic liberalism, a la John Stuart Mill, as naturally leading to totalitarianism and autocracy. It’s an old view, Plato says much the same in the Republic, but it seems particularly relevant today.

    How many institutions are forgoing the public marketplace of ideas for a liberal or conservative orthodoxy? Can human beings be motivated by a commitment to intellectual freedom or do we need some deeper cause to align ourselves to?

    While I’m deeply distrustful of utopian ideas, it does seem like Dostoevsky may have hit upon a basic phenomena of the modern condition. Men and women will use political freedom to gravitate to a cause which gives greater meaning than freedom from intrusion, itself.

    By all means read Demons for its nineteenth century theological/political dilemmas. But keep in mind that it may have something to say beyond its most self-evident ideas.
    37 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2013
    Well. That took me a disappointingly long time to read. My life got flipped upside down at some point after starting this, and the density of the work really requires a pretty clear mind to make sense of the words on the page. I finally did it though, and I am no longer disappointed.

    While, for me, Demons lacks the accessibility of Crime and Punishment (Everyman's Library), the poignancy of The Brothers Karamazov (Everyman's Library (Cloth)) The Brothers Karamazov, or the emotion of Notes from Underground (Everyman's Library) Dostoevsky still managed to turn a highly political, extremely cerebral, and academically dense novel into something that, in the end, managed to pull me into the novel for more than simple academic curiosity. I am not a student a Russian history, political or otherwise. I am not Russian. It felt like much of the novel was so mired in the history of Russian thought and identity that I became lost and distant from the characters early on. Making my way through Part 1 was a chore. I found it difficult to relate to the characters, difficult to understand, and difficult to keep track of everyone moving in and out of the story. I knew that I wouldn't, but I nearly wanted to give up - hence my foray into the playful sadness of Italo Calvino and the personal narrative of Ham on Rye: A Novel.

    Once I was able to return to this book and made it to Part II the story finally began to gell, and the characters began to come into their own for me. While this may just make it clear that I was reading this for the wrong reasons, an emotional connection is what I desired and Demons eventually delivered. I can't pretend to understand all of the symbolism, historical touchstones, or philosophical debates that this novel endeavors to bring to the forefront of my mind. I found few passages concise enough that I could even underline - a rarity for me with Dostoevsky. I am, obviously, not the target audience for this book. Nor could I pretend to truly understand the depth of the generational and idealistic clash that was truly the centerpiece of this novel. I felt it... underneath... but it rarely struck me as the raison d'etre for this book. (if he can throw French around incessantly, then surely I get one!) Dostoevsky, however, is a Master and how anyone could walk away from this without gaining something is beyond me.

    Philosophically, while I found the earlier conversations around the necessity of God for the existence of a great nation, it was Kirillov who finally grabbed my attention and pulled me in. If there is no God then, certainly, I am God. Perhaps this is because I'm still stuck on Albert Camus, but this - to the best of my memory - was one of the first (if not *the* first) things to truly resonate with me. Seen in juxtaposition with Trofimovich's revelations toward the end of the novel these two ideas are the bookends of the piece for me.

    "My immortality is necessary if only because God will not want to do an injustice and extinguish the fire of love for him once it is kindled in my heart. And what is more precious than Love? Love is higher than being, love is the crown of being, and is it possible for being not to bow before it? If I have come to love him and rejoice in my love - is it possible that he should extinguish both me and my joy and turn us to naught? If there is God, I am immortal!"

    Emotionally... I was afraid this was going to leave me dry. I was taken aback when Liza entered the crowd, but I couldn't tell if I was more surprised by what happened to her or that I found myself caring. The murders covered up by the fire did not shock me - surprising as I kept seeing unrequited love everywhere I looked yet could not empathize Maria Timofeevna. If I was taken aback by my feelings for Liza, I was completely shocked by my care for Shatov. Looking back, it is easy to see why I felt for him more than the others (up to that point), but the story was woven so well and so tightly that I did not even realize I was becoming involved. I felt like a frog in a pot of water with ever-increasing temperature, and once the water boiled, it was too late. Shatov's happiness is my own. My own as I see it. I knew this was fleeting and temporal... Pyotr wouldn't have let it be any other way. Yet still I hoped - and was devastated by the inevitable conclusion. The final fate of his wife and "son" was, I suppose, just as inevitable, but it still felt like a twist of a knife that had already delivered its fatal blow.

    The way in which Dostoevsky set me up to care about these characters was absolutely brilliant, and I feel he must be wringing his hands and laughing at me as hammer blow after hammer blow fell on the hopes for happiness that he instilled in me for these characters. And then there's Trofimovich... Ever the fool for love. Ever hopeful yet always accepting that this hope could never be realized. Tragic. And, like Shatov, finally finding that for which he was searching only as his story comes to an end. I have to stop reading these types of books because this is just making me setup my own life to end in a similar way, but the feelings evoked in those final scenes were magical. "Enough! Twenty years are gone, there's no bringing them back; I'm a fool, too." That single sentence drove me nearly to tears as if reading a tome like this at the bar wasn't already fool enough. As I said, I suppose I always knew that I would only be let down by the time this story had finished, but I had no idea I would care quite so much.

    Even for Nikolai... love... happiness, perhaps, was on its way to him. Would it have assuaged his guilt enough to prevent his actions? I do not know. Neither for him nor for myself nor for anyone left in the bloody wake of this story that ripped apart this small town.

    I wavered on my rating for this... I wanted to give it 3 stars based just on how difficult I felt it was to get into the book at the beginning. Given how much that I know I didn't get and given how much I was eventually affected by the events that unfolded that seemed extremely unfair. This is another one that, given enough time, I'd really like to reread as I think I would get much more out of it. Maybe if I manage to get old I will one day have time to revisit the sins of these little demons.
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Emily Helal
    5.0 out of 5 stars Dostoevsky's Demons is a thought-provoking exploration of human nature
    Reviewed in Egypt on September 23, 2024
    A compelling read that delves into the depths of the human psyche and ideological extremism.
  • Dentaku
    5.0 out of 5 stars Penguin needs to improve the quality.
    Reviewed in India on February 28, 2021
    Book is good but the fonts and the paper quality is despicable. Not something that can archived for a long time.
  • Joseph Walsh
    5.0 out of 5 stars One of Dostoyevsky’s late masterpieces
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 23, 2023
    A classic. Dostoyevsky’s lampooning of his fellow writers at a soirée is hilarious. Was Pyotr Stepanovich, who escapes on the train at the end, part of a wider network of nihilists or just a sadist? We’ll never know but I’d say the former.

    The core group and the other nihilists didn't seem like they could organize a night out in a brewery, at one point they had a mini meeting to decide if they were having a meeting, and when they took the stage at the event near the end of the book a female student kept interrupting and throwing out leaflets about student rights. Pyotr Stepanovich got out of in the nick of time at the end. At one point Dostoyevsky has him tell Von Lembke that he 'lost' von Lembke's manuscript for his first novel, not yet sent to the publisher, which shows how Dostoyevsky rated his Pyotr Stepanovich's character.
  • pedro
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Edition
    Reviewed in Spain on November 9, 2020
    Just a typical Everyman's Library edition hardcover book. Simply amazing. Such quality and refinement. Beautiful to look at and read.
  • Cyprien
    5.0 out of 5 stars Possessedは、こだわりすぎの人々とも訳せますね
    Reviewed in Japan on March 28, 2020
    日本だとどのような設定に置き換えると物語が成立するのでしょう?通常はフランスでもこの設定はありえない、となりますけれども。
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