Demons

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

‘This document comes straight from the need of a heart that has been mortally wounded — do I understand it correctly?’ He went on insistently and with unusual heat. ‘Yes, this is repentance and the natural need for it that has got the better of you, and you have entered upon a great path, an unprecedented path. But you already seem to hate everyone in advance who will read what has been described here, and you are challenging them to a fight. You have not been ashamed to admit a crime, why are you ashamed of repentance? Let them look at me, you say; well, and what about you, how will you look at them? Some passages in your account are stylistically heightened, as if you’re admiring your own psychology and are grasping at every tiny detail, in order to astonish the reader with your insensitivity which is not a part of you. What is this if not the proud challenge of a guilty man to his judge?’