Bruguru's Full Review: Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Devils
It takes a definite degree of dedication to undertake a Dostoyevsky novel. Of all the great Russian authors, Dostoyevsky has always seemed to me to be the darkest in tone, the most negative in outlook, and the most difficult to digest. And amongst all of Dostoyevsky's works, perhaps the hardest of all to fathom may well be The Devils (sometimes published in Russia and abroad under the titles The Possessed or The Demons).
It's interesting (and somewhat humorous) that there's so much confusion amongst scholars regarding the title of the book: if it's so hard to agree on the proper name, one can only imagine the confusion that the pages within might inspire. Regardless, for any understanding of the novel, it's essential to have at least a working background of the times in which it occurred. Specifically, TheDevils takes place during the late nineteenth century, at a time when revolutionary fervor was beginning to engulf Russia in it's gaping maw.
And even with the serious tone of the book firmly comprehended, The Devils can be a long, plodding read indeed. Dostoyevsky spends a great deal of time setting the stage with the characters of two generations, the elder noblewoman Varvara Petrovna Stavrogina and her ne'er-do-well companion, Stefan Trofimovich Verhovensky, the latter of whom traipses through the work spouting philosophy and the French language in equal measure.
But it is their children (though not offspring they have parented together) that convey the ideals of the revolutionaries. Pyotr Stepanovitch Verhovensky and Nikolai Vysevoldovitch Stavrogin are the most prominent, and along with a band of co-conspirators they serve as vehicles for the time's political zeitgeist. It's not until well into the second half of this 800 plus page tome, however, that we see them emerge as the major players.
Dostoyevsky seems here to be attacking both the old guard (seen attending ridiculous and gaudy poetical readings that quickly dissolve into farces, one of which is a stab at his contemporary and fellow author Ivan Turgenevev) and the radicals themselves, whose philosophies of Nihilism and "Shigalovism" are on display for all to see. If that were not enough, the very existence of God is debated. Dostoyevsky waxes almost Nietsczhe-esque here, as one of his characters describes God as a concept created by man more than an actual entity.
"He who will conquer pain and terror will himself be a god. And this God will not be." "Then this God does exist according to you?" "He does not exist, but He is......God is the pain of the fear of death."
Here, it's extremely important to distinguish between the author's use of the uppercase to convey the concept of an almighty, whom he argues is a man-made creation intended to assuage the fear of our own mortality. But the author also sees religion as an "opiate of the people" through his characters:
"...the harder life is for a man or the more crushed and poor the people are, the more obstinately they dream of compensation in heaven; and if a hundred thousand priests are at work at it too, inflaming their delusion......." Despite this, Dostoyevsky seems to argue that it's the way we look at life that may well make the most difference of all. Indeed, such can be seen in the very juxtaposition of characters of the old and new guard, the nobles and revolutionaries as it were. But he gives us hard references, too. At one point, a character states that man is only unhappy because he does not know he's happy. And the point of view of revolutionary zealot Shatov on the birth of what he thinks is his first born child countered immediately by the more pragmatic midwife who just delivered it:
"There were two and now there's a third human being, a new spirit, finished and complete, unlike the handiwork of man; a new thought and a new love....it's positively frightening...And there's nothing grander in the world." "Ech, what nonsense he talks! It's simply a further development of the organism, and there's nothing in it, no mystery."
The Devils has value as a period piece that opens a window on what it might have been like to live in Russia during the late 19th century. Towards the novel's end we see a bit of the peasant's lot, freed serfs actually at the time the story takes place. Dostoyevsky also shows us minors glimpses of the darker side of city life (for example, referring to "life in 'corners'", a reference to the practice of up to four families habitating a single room.) Worker's conditions are not much better:
"The Shpigulin factory's interesting; as you know there are five hundred workmen in it, it's a hotbed of cholera, it's not been cleaned for fifteen years and the factory hands are swindled. The owners are millionaires." The end of the novel has a decidedly dark tone, and we see none of the redemption which makes the author's most famous novel, Crime and Punishment, the masterpiece that it is. The Devils, however, is meant for a different purpose entirely. It certainly makes its point, though it can plod along getting there. perhaps best suited for the serious student of Russian history and/or Dostoyevsky, it's a compelling piece that is worth the time invested.
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