A Raw Youth (also translated as The Adolescent) is a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, published in 1875. It follows Arkady Dolgoruky, the nineteen-year-old illegitimate son of the intellectual landowner Versilov. Armed with his "Rothschild idea"—the conviction that wealth brings power and independence—Arkady arrives in St. Petersburg, where he is drawn into a whirlwind of family conflicts, romantic entanglements, and moral temptations. Torn between idealism and resentment, he struggles to understand his father, whose contradictory character both repels and fascinates him. The novel explores themes of identity, money, faith, and a young man's painful passage into adulthood.
