&quot;One of humanity&rsquo;s most impressive achievements &mdash; perhaps even its supreme achievement &mdash; in the art of prose fiction.&quot; &mdash;Ronald Hingley<br />&quot;Dostoyevsky&rsquo;s most confused and violent novel, and his most satisfyingly &#39;tragic&#39; work.&quot; &mdash;Joyce Carol Oates<br />&quot;Out of Shakespeare there is no more exciting reading.&quot; &mdash;Virginia Woolf<br /><br />&ldquo;Demons&rdquo; is the third of Dostoyevsky&rsquo;s five major novels. It is at once a powerful political tract and a profound study of atheism, depicting the disarray which follows the appearance of a band of modish radicals in a small provincial town. Dostoyevsky compares the radicals to the devils that drove the Gadarene swine over the precipice in his vision of a society possessed by demonic creatures that produce devastating delusions of rationality. The novel is full of buffoonery and grotesque comedy. The plot is loosely based on the details of a notorious case of political murder, but Dostoyevsky weaves suicide, rape, and a multiplicity of scandals into a compelling story of political evil.