(ISBN13: 9780679734512)Inspired by the true story of a political murder that horrified Russians in 1869, Fyodor Dostoevsky conceived of Demons as a "novel-pamphlet" in which he would say everything about the plague of materialist ideology that he saw infecting his native land. What emerged was a prophetic and ferociously funny masterpiece of ideology and murder in pre-revolutionary Russia.

    After a spectacular early success, Pisemsky's reputation as an author suffered a terrible eclipse. This was partly because of the competition of other mid-19th century Russian writers such as Turgenev and Dostoevsky, and partly because Pisemsky grossly misjudged the taste and mores of his audience. Pisemsky's brooding romanticism, coupled with his control as a writer, suffers only in comparison with literary giants. In spite of his failings Pisemsky was a writer of consummate skill, and this is an important addition to our store of 19th century Russian literature.