The Petty Demon
Jan 2009 · Abrams
Ebook
352
Pages
family_home
Eligible
info
reportRatings and reviews aren’t verified Learn More
About this ebook
The Petty Demon is one of the funniest Russian novels. It is also the most decadent of the great Russian classics, replete with naked boys, sinuous girls, and a strange mixture of beauty and perversity. The main hero, Peredonov, is as comical as he is disgusting. He is at once a victim, a monster, a silly hypocrite, and a sadistic dullard. The plot moves from Peredonov’s petty quest for a promotion to arson and murder via one of the most incredible and uproarious scandal scenes in world literature, the masquerade ball, which the boy Sasha attends as a beautiful geisha. Even in its censored form, it is one of the most provocative and sexually open of Russian books. Sologub removed many passages which would have been unacceptable at the time of publication. In this edition these censored sections are appended, and all are keyed so that the reader can place them in the novel as it was written.
About the author
By profession a schoolteacher and a poet, one of the earliest Russian symbolists, Fyodor Sologub (1863-1927) began his literary career in 1896 with a volume of verse, a collection of tales, and a novel, Bad Dreams, which described the squalid existence of a schoolmaster. His masterpiece of fiction is the novel The Petty Demon. Sologub remained in the Soviet Union after the revolution but, opposed to the Bolsheviks, lapsed into silence.
Rate this ebook
Tell us what you think.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
