Dostoevsky: Demons discussion

Section IV features one of these baroque "webs of intrigue" somewhat difficult to follow. I believe the idea is that Yulia Mikhailovna von Lembke is supposedly plotting to dethrone Varvara Petrovna as the center of provincial high society. Varvara responds by going through her chain of allies:

-> (son) Nikolai V. Stavrogin
-> (his love interest) Lizaveta Nikolaevna
-> (her mother) Praskovya Ivanovna Drozdov
-> (her dead husband) Ivan I. Drozdov
-> (his nephew) unnamed officer who also "respects" Nikolai Stavrogin
-> (his cousin) Yulia Mikhailovna von Lembke

The upshot is that Varvara has apparently won over all of Ms. Lembke's potential allies, leaving her alone in her intriguing; meanwhile the "blind and foolish" widow Drozdov doesn't believe there was any intrigue at all.

I had to make a character web to try to sort out who was who when I was reading some of this after putting it down for a long time.

Unfortunately going to Wikipedia led to some spoilers but I ended up putting this on the front of my book cover and it helped a lot: https://imgur.com/a/uLfbdWW