Commentary and synopsis of "Evil Spirits," the best of Dostoevsky's works, called a prophetic book for our time.
The Evil Ghost is a full-length novel serialized from 1871-72.
I read "Evil Spirits" translated by Taku Egawa, published by Shinchosha Publishing Co.
There are various editions of "Evil Spirits," but the Shinchosha edition is particularly recommended.
Let's take a quick look at the book.
No matter how hard you try, you can't see the rut,
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I'm lost. .......
Along with "The Brothers Karamazov," it is a masterpiece that stands at the pinnacle of the great writer's ideological and literary explorations.
Russia is in a period of transition, a time of turmoil and confusion, when all old values have collapsed due to the Emancipation of the Peasants Decree of 1861. Young men and women, driven by anarchism and atheism, organize themselves into secret societies and plot the overthrow of Russian society. --In the Bible, a herd of pigs possessed by an evil spirit jumps into a lake and drowns.
The Evil Spirits was written in 1870, near the end of Dostoevsky's tour of Europe, and continued after his return to Petersburg in July 1871.
After four years away from his native country, Dostoevsky's stay in Europe caused him to once again question the direction of European thought.
If things continue as they are, our homeland, Russia, will be in danger. If our beloved Russia is swallowed up by European ideology, our country will be doomed.
Dostoevsky developed such a sense of crisis.
Then came the actual Nechayev incident, a tragedy in which a group of people fanatical about revolutionary ideas started a civil war and lynched and killed its members.
Dostoevsky juxtaposed this incident with the biblical image of a pig possessed by an evil spirit jumping into a lake and drowning, and went on to write "Evil Spirits.
The commentary at the end of the book describes the work as follows
Of all of Dostoevsky's works, "Evil Spirits" is the most complex and enigmatic, and for this reason it has received mixed reviews throughout the ages. In the Soviet Union, there is a strong view that the work is a "slander against the revolutionary movement," while others see Stavrogin as the most serious human figure that world literature has produced, and the book as a prophecy for the present age. In any case, it seems indisputable that this work, along with "The Brothers Karamazov," is the crowning achievement of Dostoevsky's ideological and literary explorations.
Shinchosha, Dostoevsky, translated by Taku Egawa, "Evil Spirits", vol. 2, p. 751
The Evil Spirit is the pinnacle of Dostoevsky's many works in terms of its ideological and literary explorations, and is a profound work.
The overall atmosphere is heavy, but very readable.
impressions
The Evil Spirits" is known as one of Dostoevsky's best-known works, along with "Crime and Punishment" and "The Brothers Karamazov.
And the seriousness of the ideological problems this work faces is clearly one of the best in his work.
When I first read this work, it was so full of so many things that I felt ill and limp.
That is how immeasurable the magical power of this work is.
The reason why the work is so profound is, first of all, the strong personalities of each of the characters.
Each and every one of them is just as strong as the next! Strong characters clash and assert their existence on a single stage.
As if possessed by an "evil spirit," the villains cleverly and cruelly plunge society into chaos. The process is so realistic that it made my stomach churn with emotion.
The story soon progresses to an ultimate showdown between life and death, and one cannot take one's eyes off what will happen next, or what is going on in their hearts.
Now that we have talked about "Evil Spirits," some of you may be thinking, "Evil Spirits sounds kind of dark and difficult to read....
Perhaps this can be said of all of Dostoevsky's works, including those we have introduced so far.
Is Dostoevsky difficult?"
This may be an eternal theme.
It is true that compared to contemporary novels, the novel itself is longer and the language is unique, which may make it more difficult to read.
However, I have recently come to believe that in terms of "difficulty," it is actually not that difficult to fear.
There are no words that you can't understand at all when reading, nor are there long sentences that are so complicated that you can't understand what they are saying.
In terms of the task of reading the text, Dostoevsky's works are not that difficult to understand. In fact, they draw you in and keep you hooked.
So why did "Dostoevsky = difficult"?
I cannot talk about that here because it would be a digression from "Evil Spirits," but I would like to think about it again. (*The Brothers Karamazov Synopsis - Dostoevsky's masterpiece! What does man live on? What is God? What is life?We discuss some of this in our article on Also,Why is Nietzsche so difficult and why do different people interpret it differently in common with Dostoevsky?(See also the article in this issue that goes further and discusses why Nietzsche and Dostoevsky seem so difficult to understand.)
Now, I digress. "Evil Spirits" is indeed a profound work, but it is by no means difficult or too difficult to read.
In fact, there are so many people who got hooked on Dostoevsky using this work as a gateway.
Some of them were struck by Dostoevsky because of this work, and some of them even became pastors because of it.
The magical power of this work is immeasurable. It is a work that holds a strange power.
I recommend "Evil Spirits", the best of Dostoevsky's works. We invite you to wrestle with this work.
The above is a summary of Dostoevsky's "Evil Spirits" and my impression - Dostoevsky's masterpiece that exposes the gruesome reality of revolutionaries.
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