The Double

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Double

A Petersburg Poem

Translated by Constance Garnett

Novel

Creation date: 1845—1846

The Double centers on a government clerk who goes mad. It deals with the internal psychological struggle of its main character, Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, who repeatedly encounters someone who is his exact double in appearance but confident, aggressive, and extroverted, characteristics that are the polar opposites to those of the toadying "pushover" protagonist.