A Raw Youth

“The Raw youth” is a novel by the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky, first published in 1875. This novel recounts the intellectual life 19-year-old, Arkady Dolgoruky, illegitimate son of controversial and womanizing landowner Versilov. The main theme of the novel is the recurring conflict between father and son, especially in ideology, representing the battles between the "old" conventional way of thinking in 1840 and the new nihilistic point of view of the youth of Russia the years 1860. The young of Arkady's time embraced a very negative opinion of Russian culture in contrast to Western or European culture. Arkady rebels against his father by refusing to attend a University and the society of his time.