Translation by Constance Garnett with an introduction by A.D.P. Briggs.
In 1869, a young Russian was found strangled, shot in the head, and thrown into the lake. His crime? His desire to leave a small group of violent revolutionaries from whom he had become estranged. Dostoevsky takes this real-life disaster as the theme and climax of "Demons," a title that refers to the young radicals as well as to the materialistic ideas that gripped the minds of many thinking people in Russian society at that time.
The satirical portraits of the revolutionaries, with their naivety, absurd one-sidedness, and readiness for murder and destruction, may seem excessive – until we consider their ever-recognizable descendants in the real world since then. However, the main character of the novel is beyond politics. Nikolai Stavrogin, another outcome of rampant rationalism, exercises his charm with ruthless power and utter immorality. His misery is justified when he confesses a horrific sexual crime – in a chapter suppressed by the censor.
This prophetic depiction of modern morals and politics, with its fifty-plus characters, amazing events, and provocative ideas, is considered by some critics to be Dostoevsky's masterpiece.