Demons (everyman's Library, 182) | Best Pick

: The "Demons" of the title refer to the ideas (nihilism, atheism, socialism) that possess the characters like spirits, leading them to self-destruction and violence.

: The novel contrasts the "liberals of the 1840s" (represented by Stepan Verkhovensky) with their radical, nihilistic children (represented by Pyotr Verkhovensky), suggesting the former's idealism paved the way for the latter's violence.

: The novel was inspired by the real-life "Nechayev Affair" of 1869, in which a student named Ivan Ivanov was murdered by a revolutionary cell led by Sergey Nechayev.

: Stavrogin is the novel's enigmatic center—a man of immense strength and charisma who is morally "hollow." His inability to feel or believe serves as the novel's ultimate spiritual tragedy. Reading Tips