The DevilBilingual: English-Russian parallel text edition
This English-Russian bilingual book with parallel text is designed for fans of classic literature and language learners who enjoy reading in the original. Reading dual-language books is the best way to learn a lunguage. This edition features a sentence-by-sentence translation, making it easy to read in both print and digital formats.
"The Devil" is one of Leo Tolstoy's most personal and haunting works, which he kept hidden even from his family for a long time. The story follows a young landowner, Eugene Irtenev, who seemingly has everything: a thriving estate, a high social standing, and a loving wife.
However, a past affair with a peasant woman named Ste-panida turns into an uncontrollable obsession that begins to consume his mind. This work is a profound exploration of the struggle between moral duty and animal instinct, showing how a man's past can become his undoing.
This edition includes both alternative endings, allowing the reader to experience the full weight of the tragedy as Tolstoy envisioned it.
First published in the edition: "Posthumous Artistic Works of L. N. Tolstoy," edited by V. G. Chertkov, vol. 1. Moscow, 1911.
Tolstoy dated the novella November 19, 1889. The entire novella was written in ten days. The second variant of the ending (the episode of Stepa-nida's murder) dates to April - May 1890.
But even after writing the new ending of the novella, Tolstoy did not consider it finished, did not want to publish it, and hid the manuscript in the upholstery of an armchair in his study, fearing a burst of jealousy from his wife. (See: L. D. Opulskaya. L. N. Tolstoy. Materials for a Biography from 1886 to 1892, pp. 178-179).
The novella reflected Tolstoy's personal experiences related to his infatuation in his youth with a Yasnaya Polyana peasant woman, Aksinya Bazykina, and at the age of 49, with a cook, Domna, against his feelings for whom he struggled.
The plot basis of the novella reflects real events from the life of a Tula judicial investigator, N. N. Friederichs, who, three months after marrying a noblewoman, killed a peasant woman, Stepanida Munitsyna, with whom he previously had a relationship, with a revolver shot. Later, two months later, he himself was found crushed by a train. Whether he died due to nearsightedness or intentionally remained unknown
In Tolstoy's Diary, the novella was called "the story of Friederichs."
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