People Injured and Insulted (Excerpt) -- Works of Dostoevsky

Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russia), translated by Lou Ziliang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-11-01
Features: The Posessed is one of the important works of the great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky in the 19th century. The novel depicts the persecution of the "little people" by the bourgeois adventurer Varkovsky, especially two weak women, and the two family tragedies he masterminded. Ignatiev, a declining aristocrat, is the steward of the Duke of Varkovsky. He diligently manages the duke's household and estates but receives neither recognition nor trust from the duke, often engaging in verbal disputes. Eventually, they come to blows and end up in court. To destroy the Ignatiev family, Varkovsky appropriates the only estate he owned, and resorts to all means to force his son Alyosha to marry the inheritor of a million-dollar fortune, leaving the steward's daughter Natasha, who is deeply in love with Alyosha, abandoned. Another victim is the family of the elderly Schmidt. His daughter ran away with the duke after being seduced, only to be left with nothing and her family disintegrated, leaving a lonely illegitimate daughter, Nelya, who later also dies of poverty and illness. The novel shows deep sympathy for the weak while mercilessly exposing and condemning the selfish, hypocritical, greedy, and despicable nature of the bourgeoisie.