The Adolescent – Kobo eBook

The last novel Fyodor Dostoevsky published before The Brothers Karamazov, The Adolescent has been overshadowed by the great writers other works. Yet this pivotal novel contains some of Dostoevskys most groundbreaking experiments with literary formand some of his most provocative explorations of desire, sexuality, and capitalism.

In 1870s St. Petersburg, a young man named Arkady Dolgoruky strives to understand his origins. The illegitimate son of a nobleman and a peasant woman, he is caught between an enigmatic biological father, who is intellectually compelling but morally suspect, and a legal father, a peasant who has become an ascetic wanderer. As Arkady seeks to make sense of his unconventional family, he tries out several paths in life: amassing wealth, aristocratic debauchery, and a quest for spiritual truth. Along the way, he becomes embroiled in conspiracy and plans to blackmail a beautiful widow.

The Adolescent is Dostoevskys most extended work of first-person narration, told entirely by Arkady. His voice is one of the writers supreme achievements: a callow young man who combines overconfidence and uncertainty, impulsiveness and hesitation. Susanne Fussos translation introduces readers to a late masterpiece of one of the worlds greatest novelists.