A new translation of a lesser-known work catches the verve and tumult of the original, which, in concept and execution, affords a refreshingly unfamiliar glimpse of the author
Oscar Wilde claimed that Humiliated and Insulted is "not at all inferior to the other great masterpieces," and Friedrich Nietzsche is said to have wept over it. Its construction is that of an intricate detective novel, and the reader is plunged into a world of moral degradation, childhood trauma, and, above all, unrequited love and irreconcilable relationships. Found at the center of the story are a young struggling author, an orphaned teenager, and a depraved aristocrat who not only foreshadows the great figures of evil in Dostoevsky's later fiction, but is a powerful and original presence in his own right. Includes photographs, a critical apparatus on Dostoevsky's life and works, an appendix on Humiliated and Insulted, anecdotes, critical perspectives, adaptations, and spin-offs.