Virginia Woolf and the suppressed chapter from Dostoevsky’s The Demons: lecture and reading

A reading of Virginia Woolf’s translation of the suppressed chapter, “Stavrogin’s Confession”, from Dostoevsky’s novel Demons. 

The reading by Samuel Collings, who will play the role of Stavrogin in a new dramatisation of the book opening in London in October, will be preceded by a talk on the book and the suppressed chapter by Irina Kirillova, and a talk on Virginia Woolf’s relationship with the book and Hogarth Press, by Dr Nicola Wilson.

Stavrogin’s Confession was translated into English for the very first time by Virginia Woolf and Samuel Koteliansky. The Confession was published by Hogarth Press in 1922 together with Dostoevsky’s “The Plan of the Life of a Great Sinner”.

The evening will be introduced by Professor Irina Kirillova (Dostoevsky) and Dr Nicola Wilson who has just curated an exhibition celebrating the Centenary of the Hogarth Press at Reading. Pushkin House will thus bring together Bloomsbury’s literary past with Russia’s literary heritage.

Samuel Collings is currently appearing in Boudica with Gina McKee at Shakespeare’s Globe, where last season he played Jesus in The Inn at Lydda. Further stage credits include Antony and Cleopatra (Royal Shakespeare Company/New York/Miami). Edward II, Lady Windermere’s Fan and The Lady From the Sea (Royal Exchange) as well as the stage premiere of the award-winning BBC TV comedy series Waiting For God.  He also featured in War and Peace BBC Radio 4 and was also a member of the Demons Workshop for SplitMoon at the Jerwood Space and will play Stavrogin in Demons.