'My friend, the truth is always implausible, did you know that? To make the truth more plausible, it's absolutely necessary to mix a bit of falsehood with it. People have always done so.'
Written after Dostoyevsky's return from his exile after engaging with illegal literature, Demons is a gripping and incisive satire about the downfalls of nihilism.
Set in a provincial Russian town, Demons (also sometimes titled as The Possessed) follows a group of intellectual radicals as they plot to overthrow the Tsar and establish a new society. Led by two revolutionaries, the unswerving Pyotr Verkhovensky and enigmatic Nikolai Stavrogin, the group's dabbling in anti-establishment politics soon spirals into something more sinister, where destruction is mistaken for freedom and ruthlessness is interpreted as strength. But will they stoop as low as murder to cover their tracks? A damning exploration of the intoxication of ideology over compassion, faith and responsibility, Demons is both a political warning and moving tragedy of moral abandonment.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821 – 1881) was a Russian novelist, journalist and philosopher. Famed for his masterpieces Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Adolescent, his works are characterised by profound psychological insight and existentialist exploration. Today, he is regarded as one of the greatest novelists of all time.
