“Demons” by Fyodor Dostoevsky (translated by Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky)

This is not one of Dostoevsky's better known novels, but I became intrigued by it because of its associations with the anarchist circles operating in Russia during the 19th century. In fact, Dostoevsky was inspired by a real political murder in Russia, which took place in 1869 and wrote this novel partly as a protest against what he saw as the over-materialistic sentiments of some communists and anarchists. Although total fiction, the plot references famous anarchists such as Bakunin, Kropotkin, and Herzen. The tale itself is at the same time horrid and laugh-out-loud funny, with grizzly violence mingling freely with strange anecdotes and insane circumstances. There are devious conspirators, haughty aristocrats, silly academics, bungling provincial administrators, newly liberated serfs, lowdown thieves and all sorts of other riffraff all thrown together in the strange brew of small town Russia. As the plot moves, it is unclear if there is a criminal mastermind or other unseen dark forces as the conspiracy and violence pushes itself along seemingly uncontrollably. The real “demons” turn out to be the new ideas circulating at the time throughout Russia- idealism, rationalism, materialism, utilitarianism, positivism, and, above all, atheism.