Humiliated and Insulted

Once again, Dostoevsky immerses us in a world brimming with emotions of all kinds. Here, we encounter extreme states of love, compassion, pity, vile situations, and an unlimited readiness for sacrifice, alongside evil, injustice, hatred, cruelty, tyranny, and the arrogance that leads to foolish behavior.
In this novel, Dostoevsky presents his vision of the ambiguity, contradictions, and even humiliation inherent in overwhelming love. He explores how such love, when taken to extremes, often crushes the weaker party. This is the fate of 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 embodied by Prince Valkovsky—the father of her beloved Alyosha—and endure the weakness and capriciousness of her beloved, even accepting his love for another woman.
In addition to the strange models of peripheral characters and their Westernized illusions, what captivates the reader and compels them to follow the novel with passion is the story of the young girl Nellie, the daughter of injustice and misfortune. She was turned into a beggar in her childhood to avoid disobeying her mother’s dying wish: never to approach the wealthy, lest she lose her dignity.
George Haldas said of the novel: "It is a good entry point into the labyrinth of Dostoevsky, of which Humiliated and Insulted constitutes the first stage."
The translation by Dr. Sami Al-Droubi is not merely a transfer of text into Arabic but a creative work by a translator who adored Dostoevsky’s writings. He delivered a translation so masterful that Arabic readers of Dostoevsky agree it remains unparalleled.