The Everyman's Library Classics edition of Demons is widely considered one of the most durable and scholarly versions available for general readers.
: Features an essay by Joseph Frank , the world’s leading Dostoevsky biographer, which provides vital historical context.
: Russian novels often use three names for one person (first name, patronymic, and surname). For example, Nikolai Vsevolodovich Stavrogin . Demons (Everyman's Library, 182)
: You may find this novel published under the titles The Possessed or Devils ( Besy in Russian).
: The novel was inspired by the real-life "Nechayev Affair" of 1869, in which a student named Ivan Ivanov was murdered by a revolutionary cell led by Sergey Nechayev. The Everyman's Library Classics edition of Demons is
: The "Demons" of the title refer to the ideas (nihilism, atheism, socialism) that possess the characters like spirits, leading them to self-destruction and violence.
: The novel contrasts the "liberals of the 1840s" (represented by Stepan Verkhovensky) with their radical, nihilistic children (represented by Pyotr Verkhovensky), suggesting the former's idealism paved the way for the latter's violence. For example, Nikolai Vsevolodovich Stavrogin
: Dostoevsky’s political landscape is complex. Joseph Frank’s introduction in the Everyman’s edition is essential for understanding the 19th-century Russian "underground".