The Possessed
- Author Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Narrator Patrick Cullen
- Publisher Craig Black
- Publish Date 24 August 2009
- Run Time 29 hours and 19 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Classic fiction, Fiction: general and literary.
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What to expect
Loosely based on sensational press reports of a Moscow student’s murder by fellow revolutionists, The Possessed depicts the destructive chaos caused by outside agitators who move into a provincial town. The enigmatic and ideological Stavrogin dominates the novel, his magnetic personality influencing his tutor, the liberal intellectual poseur Stepan Verhovensky, and the teacher’s revolutionary son Pyotr, as well as other radicals. Stavrogin is portrayed as a man of strength without direction, capable of goodness and nobility. When he loses his faith in God, however, he is seized by brutal desires he does not fully understand.
Widely considered the greatest political novel ever written, The Possessed showcases Dostoevsky’s brilliant characterization, amazing insight into the human heart, and crushing criticism of the desire to manipulate the thought and behavior of others.
Critics Review
u201cThe Possessed is a novel more worthy of being called prophetic than others...the characters who Dostoyevsky put into The Possessed are much closer to us than you would expect.u201d
u201cThe Possessed, [is]u00a0Dostoyevskyu2019s most confused and violent novel, and his most satisfactorily u2018tragicu2019 work...The cacophony of voices, the wildly accelerated scenes translate into a philosophical, even a metaphysical statement, for there is a point at which u2018real lifeu2019 must surrender to the forms of melodrama which do not distort it but in fact express it faithfully.u201d
u201cDostoevskyu2019s verbal mastery deserves special study...each of the dramatis personae is immersed in his own verbal element...The clashing and interweaving of these verbal styles and rhythms form the intricate counterpoint of the novelu2019s stylistics.u201d
u201cDostoevsky, taking as his starting point the political chaos around him at the time, constructs an elaborate morality tale in which the people of a provincial town turn against one another because they are convinced of the infallibility of their ideas...A chilling foreshadowing of Stalinist logic.u201du00a0
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