The Adolescent

The Adolescent
ISBN: 9781847494993
Publication Date: 1 September 2016

'The real nineteenth-century prophet was Dostoevsky, not Karl Marx.' Albert Camus

Among Dostoevsky's later novels, The Adolescent occupies a very special place: published three years after The Devils and five years before his final masterpiece, The Karamazov Brothers, the novel charts the story of nineteen-year-old Arkady - the illegitimate son of the landowner Versilov and the maid Sofia Andreyevna - as he struggles to find his place in society and 'become a Rothschild' against the background of 1870s Russia, a nation still tethered to its old systems and values but shaken up by the new ideological currents of socialism and nihilism.

Both a Bildungsroman and a novel of ideas, dealing with themes such as the relationship between fathers and sons and the role of money in modern society, The Adolescent - here presented in a brand-new translation by Dora O'Brien - shows Dostoevsky at his finest as a social commentator and observer of the workings of a young man's mind.

About the Author

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) is considered one of the greatest writers of all times. His works include such seminal novels as Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Karamazov Brothers.