November 22, 2018 6 min to read

Dostoevsky's Devils

the perils of life without spiritual purpose.

Dostoevsky’s Devils

This is the hardest of Dostoevsky’s novels. It’s hard enough to finish it let alone fully engage with everything that goes on in it. It’s the ultimate prank by Dostoevsky; you’ll find yourself looking for actions and inciting moments, only to find there are none. The book creeps along seemingly moving towards something while you have no idea what is creating the momentum. It’s equal parts frustrating and eery. Looking for a traditional ‘plot’, or reading up on the plot prior to reading it, doesn’t really help make it a more straight forward read.

I should mention that is a common feature of Russian literature. They aren’t usually presenting a ‘novel’ or a traditional plot; they deal with ideas expressed in actions or inaction. They (hopefully) make you read the content and then let your subconscious chew on it for a while.

Dostoevsky’s writings often appeared in publication, published piece by piece over a period of time. It’s hard to imagine what it would have been like to read a chapter each week, and then anticipate or await the next part. It’s even harder to imagine that there were people reading them and having meaningful discussions and/or revelations about the text. Particularly today when our minds are engaged by content on social media readily available, it makes me wonder who was reading this material. Who really read it? Who really cared? Were there other publications that were easier to digest that people read more and talked about more but that did not survive into the modern era?

But I am going off topic. To summarise: it’s the hardest of Dostoevsky’s works, it’s terrifyingly prescient, and it’s a clear warning against a world without spiritual centeredness. Now before I go into these topics in more depth, I’ll attempt to summarise the ‘plot’ (and to emphasise, knowing this in advance may make reading it harder).

The story opens in a fictional town in the early to mid 1800s in Russia. Serfdom (slavery) has been abolished, and Russia is in the throes of its experiments with modernisation and liberalisation (both economically and intellectually). Those of higher political and social stature are either liberals or are using liberalism as a means to an end (greater political and social stature). And it’s not explicitly stated this way. Dostoevsky creates characters who represent something, and then let those characters/ideas interact. You’re watching adjacent/conflicting/void ideas interact with and react against one another.

Then, much is made of the return of two young men to the town, the sons of two of the main characters. These two are also representing ideas: Stavrogin and Stepanovich. The former a smart, charismatic, yet spiritually void, and the latter smart, manipulative, and seeking power for power’s sake. Their arrival in the town is this seemingly benign flashpoint that never really flashes.

The characters/ideas intermingle, and when they do arrive at a ‘flashpoint’, it’s not a cathartic moment; it’s tragic. And even worse, it’s not totally clear how it got where it is. It leads to no meaningful change; it signifies nothing. To quote Macbeth, it’s all ‘sound and fury’.

So to start with ‘what makes this book hard to read’,

It’s terrifyingly prescient, …

It’s a warning, …

Here is a test: test test test dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aenean eu leo quam. Pellentesque ornare sem lacinia quam venenatis vestibulum. Sed posuere consectetur est at lobortis. Cras mattis consectetur purus sit amet fermentum.

Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Nullam quis risus eget urna mollis ornare vel eu leo. Nullam id dolor id nibh ultricies vehicula ut id elit.

Etiam porta sem malesuada magna mollis euismod. Cras mattis consectetur purus sit amet fermentum. Aenean lacinia bibendum nulla sed consectetur.

Inline HTML elements

HTML defines a long list of available inline tags, a complete list of which can be found on the Mozilla Developer Network.

• To bold text, use <strong>.
• To italicize text, use <em>.
• Abbreviations, like HTML should use <abbr>, with an optional title attribute for the full phrase.
• Citations, like — Thomas A. Anderson, should use <cite>.
• Deleted text should use <del> and inserted text should use <ins>.
• Superscript ^text uses <sup> and subscript _text uses <sub>.

Most of these elements are styled by browsers with few modifications on our part.

Heading 1

Heading 2

Heading 3

Heading 4

Vivamus sagittis lacus vel augue rutrum faucibus dolor auctor. Duis mollis, est non commodo luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem nec elit. Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros.

Code

Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis code element montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.

// Example can be run directly in your JavaScript console

// Create a function that takes two arguments and returns the sum of those arguments
var adder = new Function("a", "b", "return a + b");

// Call the function
adder(2, 6);
// > 8

Aenean lacinia bibendum nulla sed consectetur. Etiam porta sem malesuada magna mollis euismod. Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo, tortor mauris condimentum nibh, ut fermentum massa.

Lists

Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aenean lacinia bibendum nulla sed consectetur. Etiam porta sem malesuada magna mollis euismod. Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo, tortor mauris condimentum nibh, ut fermentum massa justo sit amet risus.

• Praesent commodo cursus magna, vel scelerisque nisl consectetur et.
• Donec id elit non mi porta gravida at eget metus.
• Nulla vitae elit libero, a pharetra augue.

Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Nulla vitae elit libero, a pharetra augue.

1. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper.
2. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.
3. Maecenas sed diam eget risus varius blandit sit amet non magna.

Cras mattis consectetur purus sit amet fermentum. Sed posuere consectetur est at lobortis.

Integer posuere erat a ante venenatis dapibus posuere velit aliquet. Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros. Nullam quis risus eget urna mollis ornare vel eu leo.

Images

Quisque consequat sapien eget quam rhoncus, sit amet laoreet diam tempus. Aliquam aliquam metus erat, a pulvinar turpis suscipit at.

Tables

Aenean lacinia bibendum nulla sed consectetur. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

Nullam id dolor id nibh ultricies vehicula ut id elit. Sed posuere consectetur est at lobortis. Nullam quis risus eget urna mollis ornare vel eu leo.