The double

The novel "The Double" was published, the second work by Dostoevsky, in early 1846, just days after the great success of the novel "Poor Folk." This book deals with the subject of madness, which is one of Dostoevsky's favorite themes in his later major novels. This novel depicts the internal struggle raging within Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, an employee in one of the departments of the city of Petersburg, whose life is turned upside down when a person who looks exactly like him appears, schemes against him, and gradually takes his place at work and at home, until it drives his life to complete collapse. Perhaps the most significant thing that affected Mr. Golyadkin and amazed him was that the people around him, especially his boss at work and his servant Petroushka, did not seem shocked by the appearance of this double, and considered him just a man who resembled him and treated him on that basis. Dostoevsky's reliance on the technique of internal dialogue intensively in this novel enabled him to explore the depths of his hero's character and to delve into his psyche, which was changed by the entrance of this other, thus demonstrating his genius in analyzing the human soul, as Nietzsche said about him: "Dostoevsky is the only writer from whom I learned something about psychology." Although the novel "The Double" is not among Dostoevsky's most famous works, it is considered the cornerstone of his distinctive style, to the extent that Vladimir Nabokov said it was "the greatest book Dostoevsky wrote."