Demons (Dostoevsky novel) Demons (Dostoevsky novel) Demons (pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform ; sometimes also called The Possessed or The Devils) is a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, first published in the journal "The Russian Messenger" in 1871–2. It is considered one of the four masterworks written by Dostoevsky after his return from Siberian exile, along with "Crime and Punishment" (1866), "The Idiot" (1869) and "The Brothers Karamazov" (1880). "Demons" is a social and political satire, a psychological drama, and large scale tragedy. Joyce Carol Oates has described it as "Dostoevsky's most confused and violent novel, and his most satisfactorily 'tragic' work." According to Ronald
Fyodor Dostoevsky of Russian literature. Albert Einstein put him above the mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, calling him a "great religious writer" who explores "the mystery of spiritual existence". Friedrich Nietzsche at one point called Dostoevsky "the only psychologist ... from whom I had something to learn; he ranks among the most beautiful strokes of fortune in my life", although the mature Nietzsche later turned against Dostoevsky likening him to Jesus and calling him decadent. Hermann Hesse enjoyed Dostoevsky's work and cautioned that to read him is like a "glimpse into the havoc". The Norwegian novelist Knut Hamsun wrote that "no one has