This introduction is straightforward and helped me understand several points that would otherwise have been lost in the many, many plots and characters. No wonder I had so much trouble in the middle! Society novels (or comedies of manners) and psychological novels exist in all times and across genres, while the anti-nihlism stuff is pretty specific and harder to relate to (or maybe I just don’t read political novels). Belknap helpfully relates each of the three parts of Demons to general “type” of story – the society novel, the anti-nihlist novel, and the psychological novel. The narrator is a minor character but sometimes the point of view seems to change to omniscient. In Demons, the main “chronicle” doesn’t even start till well after page 200.

My main struggle with Dostoyevsky is that he tries to do so much in his later novels, and the plots are all tangled up.

Introduction focuses on how to read Demons, especially the form and structure of the book.

Maguire in 2008 (he died in 2005, the translation was finished by editor Ronald Meyer) I don’t get the P&V hate, though they are awfully fond of using formal and old-fashioned language (in the very first sentence, they use “hitherato” where Maguire used “until then”.) Penguin Classics Edition I read about 80% of Demons in the Maguire translation, which was great until I came across a typo, and about 20% in the Pevear and Volokhonsky. Just don’t ask me to recommend the best translation. Here’s a quick guide, to help you choose an edition that works for you. I ended up perusing three introductions to Demons (I like to check out different translations, and later decided to borrow an edition to read on my phone).

Luckily, classic novels usually come with an introduction. After reading my seventh Dostoyevsky novel, I realized I still don’t really understand his writing.

Dostoevsky demons best translation