The Insulted and Humiliated

Author: Dostoevsky

Translation: Sami Al-Durubi

Once again, Dostoevsky enters a world full of emotions of all kinds. Here we find extreme states of love, affection, pity, noble attitudes, and an unlimited willingness to sacrifice, just as we find evil, injustice, hatred, cruelty, tyranny, and pride that leads to foolish actions. In this novel, Dostoevsky presents his vision of the ambiguity, contradictions, and even humiliation inherent in passionate love, and how such love, when extreme, demands a heavy price from the weaker party. This is the case with Natasha, who gave her heart and abandoned her family, sacrificing everything without hesitation. She was forced to bear the consequences of this love, confront the evil represented by the Prince, the father of her beloved Alyosha, overlook her lover’s childlike weakness and his susceptibility to his whims, and even accept his love for another woman. In addition to the strange characters and their peculiar worlds, what draws the reader to the novel and makes them follow it with passion is the story of the girl Nelly, a child of injustice and suffering, who became a beggar in her childhood so as not to disobey her mother's dying wish: that she should not go to the rich lest she lose her dignity. Georges Haldas says about the novel: "It is a good entry into Dostoevsky's labyrinth, of which 'The Insulted and Humiliated' constitutes the first stage." Dr. Sami Al-Durubi's translation is not merely a transfer of text into Arabic; rather, it is the creative work of a translator who adored Dostoevsky's works, providing us with a masterful translation that Arabic readers of Dostoevsky have acknowledged as unparalleled.