What really happens when you meet your doppelganger?

Well, if you are “dangerously antisocial” and your double is charming, well-liked and has the social skills that you lack, then they take over your life by pretending to be you!

Dostoevsky’s novella 'The Double' follows the life of Golyadkin, a low-level official who is a dangerous sociopath. After a misadventure at a birthday party, Golyadkin has a chance meeting with Golyadkin Junior — his double who looks just like him.

The theme of the doppelgänger runs potent in the story, together with universal ones like depression, sorrow, alienation, and social injustice. The only solution for the protagonist is the asylum, where his mind can finally be at piece.

A sardonic, Gogolian tale of absurdity and social criticism that is proven to be a great read.

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881) was a famous Russian writer of novels, short stories, and essays. A connoisseur of the troubled human psyche and the relationships between the individuals, Dostoevsky’s oeuvre covers a large area of subjects: politics, religion, social issues, philosophy, and the uncharted realms of the psychological.

There have been at least 30 film and TV adaptations of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s 1866 novel “Crime and Punishment” with probably the most popular being the British BBC TV series starring John Simm as Raskolnikov and Ian McDiarmid as Porfiry Petrovich.

“The Idiot” has also been adapted for films and TV, as has “Demons” and “The Brothers Karamazov”.

Constance Garnett