''The Petty Demon'' (russian: Мелкий бес, Melkiy bes), also translated as ''The Little Demon'', is a

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

novel by Russian writer

Fyodor Sologub Fyodor Sologub (russian: Фёдор Сологу́б, born Fyodor Kuzmich Teternikov, russian: Фёдор Кузьми́ч Тете́рников, also known as Theodor Sologub; – 5 December 1927) was a Russian Symbolist poet, novelist, trans ...

. It was published in a standalone edition in 1907 and quickly became popular, having ten printings during the author's lifetime.

Plot

The novel recounts the story of the sadist schoolteacher Peredonov in an unnamed Russian provincial town. The other plotline presents the idyllic loves of the boy Sasha Pylnikov and Ludmila Rutilova. Peredonov lives in constant hatred to the world around him and to the life itself and believes that all live in constant hatred of him. Throughout the novel Peredonov struggles to be promoted to governmental inspector of his province and starts going paranoid and hallucinates with a mysterious little demon Nedotykomka. He finally commits murder in a state of insanity.

Literary significance

The realistic and satirical depiction of Russian provincial life and the

omniscient Omniscience () is the capacity to know everything. In Hinduism, Sikhism and the Abrahamic religions, this is an attribute of God. In Jainism, omniscience is an attribute that any individual can eventually attain. In Buddhism, there are diffe ...

third-person narrative Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the a ...

allowed Sologub to combine his Symbolist tendencies and the tradition of Russian Realism in which he engaged throughout his earlier novels, a style similar to

Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...

fantastic realism The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism (german: Wiener Schule des Phantastischen Realismus) is a group of artists founded in Vienna in 1946. It includes Ernst Fuchs, Maître Leherb (Helmut Leherb), Arik Brauer, Wolfgang Hutter and Anton Lehmd ...

. The novel may be read as a satire on Russian province, but Sologub's intention was to paint life itself as an evil creation of God. The grotesque Russian town and the world of ''The Petty Demon'' are incarnations of '' poshlost''', a Russian concept that has characteristics of both evil and banality, and Peredonov and his demon Nedotykomka are the personifications of ''poshlost. As D. S. Mirsky wrote in 1925, "Peredonov has become the most famous and memorable character of Russian fiction since ''

The Brothers Karamazov ''The Brothers Karamazov'' (russian: Братья Карамазовы, ''Brat'ya Karamazovy'', ), also translated as ''The Karamazov Brothers'', is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly two years writing '' ...

''", and his name has become a word of the literary language: "It stands for the incarnation of sullen evil, which knows no joy and resents others' knowing it". According to Mirsky, Peredonov forms a 'trinity' together with

Fyodor Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...

's Foma Opiskin and

Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin ( rus, Михаи́л Евгра́фович Салтыко́в-Щедри́н, p=mʲɪxɐˈil jɪvˈɡrafəvʲɪtɕ səltɨˈkof ɕːɪˈdrʲin; – ), born Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov and known during ...

's Porfiry Golovlyov.

English translations

*''The Little Demon'' authorized trans. John Cournos and Richard Aldington (London: M. Secker, 1916). *''The Petty Demon'' trans. Andrew Field (New York: Random House, 1962). *''The Petty Demon'' trans. Samuel D. Cioran (Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1983) (with an appendix and critical articles ed. Murl Barker). . *''The Little Demon'' trans. Ronald Wilks (New York: Penguin, 1994) (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics). .

References

1905 Russian novels Symbolist novels Russian satirical novels {{DEFAULTSORT:Little Demon

Plot

Literary significance

English translations

See also

References