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The Possessed

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The Possessed

By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Constance Garnett - translator
Narrated by: Constantine Gregory
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About this listen

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 Stepanovich Verkhovensky, 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 50 years later. Funny, shocking, and tragic, it is a profound and affecting work with deep philosophical discourses about God, human freedom and political revolution.

Translation by Constance Garnett; appendix translated by S. S. Koteliansky and Virginia Woolf.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2017 Naxos AudioBooks Biographical Fiction Genre Fiction Metaphysical & Visionary Fiction Russia Biography Funny Inspiring Tear-jerking
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This may not be the instant hit that Crime and Punishment or The Idiot are, but as the characters are introduced the story gets more and more intriguing.
Once again, Constantine Gregory makes it come alive. A book I have been putting off for years, now I want to listen to it all over again.

Gets better and better

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The story gets off to a slow start, but interest and tension quickly build. Scarily relevant today. I gave up before the end of the appendix however. I think the original editor was right to cut out those two additional chapters

Takes a while to get into but worth it

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I once heard that reading Russian literature is akin to mountain climbing; there is lots of preparation required and a lot of work to get to the peak, but the view along the way and at the opposite are unlike any else you will experience.

For me Dostoevsky's works are just so.

This title turns his high powered perception towards political philosophy. There are many exceptional reviews on this book already, and I don't know that I can add much to what has already been written by minds superior to my own. My one thought is in the form of a question; the story proved to be remarkably prophetic for Russian society in the decades that proceeded and many times listening to this book I was struck by the parallels to my own time. I wonder how relevant Possessed will be another 200 years from now?

The book reveals to me not only Dostoevsky's brilliance, but also the cyclical nature of human history. What will our descendants write and think about us I'm centuries to come?

The more things change the more they stay the same

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I really enjoyed both the story and Constantine Gregory’s reading. Gregory made it much easier to keep track of the many characters through his different voices and the timbre and tone of his voice are pleasant to listen to.

The story is very interesting and the inclusion of the controversial chapters was appreciated, although it would have been better if they were in the correct part in the story rather than at the end.

Ticks all the boxes

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