The Little Demon

Sologub, Fyodor, 1863-1927Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.3

Word count: 637K words
Chapters: 64

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Der kleine Dämon by Fyodor SologubAuthor: Sologub, Fyodor, 1863-1927,Language: German, Class: PG: Language and Literatures: Slavic (including Russian), Languages and Literature, Release Date: Aug 22, 2018

Editor's review

The Little Demon is a representative novel by the Russian Symbolist writer Fyodor Sologub; the German translation is included in Project Gutenberg and freely available. Set in a small provincial town, the work uses a teacher's distorted psyche and the dreary picture of everyday life to show how desire, hypocrisy and self-deception erode the human spirit. Sologub's tone is cold and rich in symbolism; he is skilled at planting unsettling undercurrents in trivial everyday details, so the reading offers both the sharpness of social critique and the ambiguity and poetry peculiar to Symbolism. The German translation preserves the gloomy, restrained quality of the original language and is a good entry point for understanding the Russian Symbolist novel and the spiritual atmosphere of provincial society at the end of the nineteenth century. While reading, pay attention to the gap between the protagonist's inner monologue and the real scenes, which is the key to the book's theme. As a public-domain ebook, its typesetting and notes are plain; reading it alongside introductory materials is recommended.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Russian Symbolist literature who want to broaden their reading
Literary fans used to dense psychological description and gloomy atmosphere
Readers studying late-nineteenth-century Russian provincial society and the mindset of intellectuals
Learners with German reading ability who want free classic translations

Not a good fit for

Casual readers expecting light, bright plots or happy endings
Beginners with weak German who struggle with long sentences and symbolic expression
Readers sensitive to gloomy psychological description and moral gray areas

Reading tips

Learn the basics of Sologub and Russian Symbolism before starting the text; this reduces obstacles to understanding.
As you read, note the correspondence between the protagonist's psychological changes and external scenes to grasp the symbolic clues.
Do not insist on fully understanding obscure passages at first; read the whole text, then return to key chapters.
Read alongside other Russian Symbolist works to see how different authors handle similar material.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or German?

According to Project Gutenberg, the book is a German translation with the language marked as German. There is no Chinese translation, so some German reading ability is needed before reading.

Can I read this book without any German?

It is difficult to read directly. The book is a German ebook, and Sologub's language features the long sentences and metaphors characteristic of Symbolism; an intermediate level of German or a translation in another language for comparison is recommended.

Is this book suitable as an introduction to Russian literature?

It is not the best first choice. It is a Symbolist novel with dense psychological description and a gloomy atmosphere, and the threshold for understanding is high. It is better to start with clearer Russian classics and come back to this book later.

What should I note when reading the ebook?

Project Gutenberg public-domain ebooks are plainly typeset, usually without detailed notes. It is advisable to have biographical and background material on hand, and note that paragraph display on different devices may affect the reading of long sentences.

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About the author

Sologub, Fyodor, 1863-1927 Author

Fyodor Sologub (Sologub, Fyodor, 1863-1927) was an important writer of Russian Symbolist literature; public information about him is limited, and details of his life are not recorded in our database. Four of his works are held here, including the representative novel The Little Demon, as well as The Created Legend and the story collection The Old House, and Other Tales. These works show Sologub's gift for depicting provincial life and the darker sides of human nature in a grotesque and gloomy style, often interweaving realistic satire with symbolic and fantastic elements in a cold, psychologically penetrating manner. The Little Demon exposes vulgarity and malice through the figure of a teacher, while The Created Legend incorporates myth and utopian imagination, revealing the range of his writing. His works influenced the development of the Russian Symbolist novel and merit attention for their grotesque aesthetics and critique of human nature.