Al Mazdouj | Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Double, Dostoevsky's second work, was published in early 1846, just days after the great success of The Poor. This book raises the subject of madness, which is one of Dostoevsky's favorite topics in his later major novels.
This novel depicts the inner struggle within Yakov Petrovich Goliadkin, an employee of a St. Petersburg administration whose life is turned upside down when someone who looks exactly like him appears. He plots against him and gradually occupies his position at work and at home, until he drives his life to complete collapse. Perhaps the most important thing that affected and surprised Mr. Goliadkin was that the people around him, headed by his boss and servant Petrushka, did not seem to have been shocked by the appearance of this look-alike, and considered him to be just a man who looked like him and treated him as such.
Dostoevsky's reliance on the technique of internal dialogue Extensively in this novel, he was able to probe the depths of the character of his hero, and penetrate into his psyche, which was changed by the entry of this other, thus dedicating his genius in analyzing human psychology, as Nietzsche said about him: "Dostoevsky is the only writer from whom I learned something from psychology."
Although the novel "The Double" is not one of Dostoevsky's most famous works, it is considered the cornerstone of his unique style. Vladimir Nabokov even called it "the greatest book written by Dostoevsky."