The Possessed
by Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский
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Also known as Demons, The Possessed is a powerful socio-political novel about revolutionary ideas and the radicals behind them. It follows the career of Pyotr Stepanovitch Verhovensky, a political terrorist who leads a group of Nihilists on a demonic quest for societal breakdown. They are consumed by their desires and ideals, and have surrendered themselves fully to the darkness of their ‘demons’. This possession leads them to engulf a quiet provincial town and subject it to a storm of violence. Inspired by a real political killing in 1869, the book is an impassioned response to the ideologies of European liberalism and nihilism, which threatened Russian Orthodoxy; it eerily predicted the Russian Revolution, which would take place fifty years later. Funny, shocking and tragic, it is a profound and affecting work with deep philosophical discourses about God, human freedom and political revolution. This edition contains the original banned Chapter Nine, translated by S.S. Koteliansky and Virginia Woolf, which is presented here as an appendix.
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Subjects
Fiction, Russian fiction, Politics in fiction, Nihilism, Social life and customs, Terrorists, Manners and customs, Romans, Fiction, political, Terrorists, fiction, Russia (federation), fiction, Continental european fiction (fictional works by one author), Slavic philology, Terrorism, Nihilismo, Terrorismo, Novela, Vido social y costumbres, Fiction, general, Nihilism--fiction, Terrorists--russia--fiction, Pg3325 .b6 2008, 891.733, Political science, Fiction, psychological, Drama, history and criticismPlaces
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19th centuryShowing 12 featured editions. View all 170 editions?
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Demons: A Novel In Three Parts
2008, Penguin Books
Paperback
in English
- 1st printing
0141441410 9780141441412
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The Possessed: The Devils
2004 June 30, Kessinger Publishing
Paperback
in English
1419178288 9781419178283
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Book Details
Edition Notes
Total running time: 27:28:42 • 23 CDs
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First Sentence
"BEFORE DESCRIBING THE EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS WHICH took place so recently in our town, hitherto not remarkable for anything in particular, I find it necessary, since I am not a skilled writer, to go back a little and begin with certain biographical details concerning our talented and greatly esteemed Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky."
Work Description
Also known as Demons or The Devils, this is Dostoyevsky’s most political novel. Though critical of the left-wing revolutionaries, split as they often were into disparate factions and cells the author also tacitly rebukes the conservative elite for failing to come to terms with the high levels of disaffection in the country, a stance that would ultimately lead to their downfall.
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- Created April 24, 2018
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| April 24, 2018 | Edited by Lisa | Edited without comment. |
| April 24, 2018 | Edited by Lisa | Added new cover |
| April 24, 2018 | Created by Lisa | Added new book. |