The Little Demon

Fyodor Sologub, Ronald Wilks, Pamela Davidson

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English

Penguin
25 September 2013

Literature, Poetry & Criticism; Classic fiction (pre c 1945); Fiction in translation

Mad, lascivious, sadistic and ridiculous, the provincial schoolteacher Peredonov torments his students and has hallucinatory fantasies about acts of savagery and degradation, yet to everyone else he is an upstanding member of society.

A dark classic of Russia's silver age, this blackly funny novel recounts a schoolteacher's descent into sadism, arson and murder. Mad, lascivious, sadistic and ridiculous, the provincial schoolteacher Peredonov torments his students and has hallucinatory fantasies about acts of savagery and degradation, yet to everyone else he is an upstanding member of society. As he pursues the idea of marrying to gain promotion, he descends into paranoia, sexual perversion, arson, torture and murder. Sologub's anti-hero is one of the great comic monsters of twentieth-century fiction, subsequently lending his name to the brand of sado-masochism known as Peredonovism. The Little Demon (1907) made an immediate star of its author who, refuting suggestions that the work was autobiographical, stated 'No, my dear contemporaries ... it is about you'. This grotesque mirror of a spiritually bankrupt society is arguably the finest Russian novel to have come out of the Symbolist movement. Fyodor Sologub was born in St Petersburg in 1863. His first two novels Bad Dreams (1896) and The Little Demon (1907) were drawn from his own experiences as schoolmaster in a remote provincial town. For many years Sologub could not find a publisher for The Little Demon but when in 1907 the novel was at last published - to immediate and resounding success - he was able to leave his restricting career and devote himself to literature. In 1921 his wife committed suicide and Sologub died a few years later in 1927.

Ronald Wilks studied Russian language and literature at Trinity College,Cambridge, after training as a Naval interpreter, and later Russian literature at London University. He has translated many works from Russian for Penguin Classics, including books by Gorky, Gogol, Pushkin, Tolstoy and Chekhov.

By: Fyodor Sologub
Introduction by: Pamela Davidson
Translated by: Ronald Wilks
Imprint: Penguin
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 258g
ISBN: 9780141392936
ISBN 10: 0141392932
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 25 September 2013
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

FYODOR SOLOGUB was born in St Petersburg in 1863. He wrote several novels, including Bad Dreams (1896) and The Little Demon (1907), which brought him immediate fame. He also published many books of poems and short stories, and two plays. <br> RONALD WILKS (translator) has translated many works from Russian for Penguin Classics, including books by Gorky, Gogol, Pushkin, Tolstoy and Chekhov. <br> PAMELA DAVIDSON (introducer) is a professor of Russian Literature at the University College of London.