Stepan/Lady Stavrogina

I've read and read this book more times than I can count, I jus absolutely love it. One thing I am trying to do more of this time around, is focusing on the beginning portions as the characters are being introduced. The Lady Stavrogina/Stepan relationship is one that is definitely amusing to me and which brings a smirk to my face. His fits of "summer cholera" upon her receiving wine bills that he has run up does give me a good chuckle. On a more serious note, I have to wonder if FD wasn't speaking about a greater problem in his time-the problem of wealthy Russians flirting with extreme ideologies and paying heed or money to them.

Any thoughts?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SFG75

I've read and read this book more times than I can count, I jus absolutely love it. One thing I am trying to do more of this time around, is focusing on the beginning portions as the characters are being introduced. The Lady Stavrogina/Stepan relationship is one that is definitely amusing to me and which brings a smirk to my face. His fits of "summer cholera" upon her receiving wine bills that he has run up does give me a good chuckle. On a more serious note, I have to wonder if FD wasn't speaking about a greater problem in his time-the problem of wealthy Russians flirting with extreme ideologies and paying heed or money to them.

Any thoughts?

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This jibes well with what I thought FD might be getting at. The parents' flirtation with radical thinking, which was mostly insincere posturing, resulted in a next generation who took the ideas seriously and acted on them. Chickens coming home to roost as they say. Of course one could argue that Nikolai Stavrogin and Peter Verkhovensky were no more sincere than their parents . . .

Am I remembering correctly that Devils was the first major work after FD's imprisonment and simulated execution?

No,the devils was around 1872,he started writing again about 1859. House of the dead was his 'big release' after prison.