About this title: During a time of revolution, Nikolay Stavrogin, a brilliant but alienated young aristocrat, becomes a criminal, a degenerate, and an exploiter of women because of his inability to feel genuine emotion. Dostoyevsky hoped, in this novel, to rally the Russian upper classes to turn away from their own nihilistic self-absorption and identify with the masses, to avert the real revolution he saw coming. The title, translated variously as THE POSSESSED or DEMONS refers to the tide of new political ideas that spread through Russia in the late 19th century--ideas Dostoyevsky saw as dangerous and ...
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780679734512ISBN:0679734511
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc
Date Published: 1995-08-01
ISBN-13:9780679734512ISBN:0679734511
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780679734512. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Everymans Library
Date Published: 2000-10-01
ISBN-13:9780375411229ISBN:0375411224
Description: NEW. Hardcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780375411229. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Everyman's Library
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780375411229ISBN:0375411224
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Description: Good. Ships from the UK. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Your purchase also supports literacy charities. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Everyman's Library
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780375411229ISBN:0375411224
Description: Good. No Jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Seven pages are dog-eared or creased but the pages lay flat. No writing or underlining. The rear board has a few scuffed spots. NO JACKET. This edition has burgundy boards with a matching burgundy ribbon bookmark. read more
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780679423140ISBN:0679423141
Description: Fine in very good dust jacket. DJ Minor Tears at Edges. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 733 p. Audience: General/trade. Very Nice Clean Unmarked Copy. Publishers Maroon Top Stain. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780679734512ISBN:0679734511
Description: Very Good+ 0679734511. Standard shelf wear, else a perfect copy. Text is clean; binding tight. Literature. Pasadena's finest independent new and used bookstore.; 1.6 x 8 x 5.1 Inches; 768 pages. read more
"This translation lets the book's wild life shine through. It's the most cinematic novel I've ever read, operatic too, with its vast variety of voices and dramatic ensemble and chorus scenes. Entertaining and occasionally hilarious as well as challenging and thought-provoking. The introduction and footnotes are useful and accessible. A great holiday gift (yes, really, I'm not kidding)!"
"An ambitious work, the breadth of ideas, the novel's design, all were masterfully crafted by Dosotoevsky...impressive...but at that the same time it could feel rather pretentious . As in his other post-Siberian books, this one is mainly constructed on the foundation of his anti-nihilistic sentiment.
"The possessed" signifies the young generation of Russia at that time bent on destroying all the accepted social norms and values, whom Dosotoevsky accused from being incapable of forming their own original ideas, thus merely following on what was in vogue then, or, as what one of the minor character blurted out "everything is so boring,one can't be squeamish over one's amusement, as long as they are interesting", it was the case of sheer ennui and impotency that they became nihilists.
It is interesting that Dostoevsky based one of his many challenges to nihilism here on the acts of suicide. Terrifying arguments were pounced on by the ironic Kirilov and, near the end, by the delusional Trofimovitch...all were bordering on sophistry me think...
Anyway...there are plenty of characters put on use, bestowed with different levels of "being possessed", from the ultimate dilletante Stravogin to the cunning automaton Erkel, which made for a thoroughly delightful characters study...there is also a cameo appearance of a doctor, losing his job due to a quarrel with his superiors...just like in "The Idiot"...curious..."
"This might be the most tragic novel I've ever read, so much so that I have difficulty justifying recommending it to anyone at all. The number of characters presented, each burdened with his or her own ideology, and the sincerity with which their ideas are often presented only makes it more deflating when that ideology ultimately destroys each and every one of them, but the questions raised by each of them about religion, existentialism, morality, socialism, and society make Demons an unquestionable rewarding read. I'm sad to see that Dostoevsky's other, admittedly brilliant works, seem to get so much more interest than this, his seminal work on political ideology. It has all of the power of the Brothers Karamazov, all of the insight of Crime and Punishment, and the same disturbing psychology that distinguished Notes from Underground."
"Just finished this one and it was really good. (Some versions of this book are called "The Possessed" which some argue is a bad translation in Constance Garnette's translation of the text.) It is a bit slow moving at first but once you get introduced to some of the more whacky characters it picks up. Besides FD was a great psychological mind. It is full of witty zingers at some of his contemporaries and a good moral behind it. It is loosely based on a true story of some revolutionaries who commit a murder to avert being turned in to the government. FD uses the characters to express his growing concern of revolutionaries, anarchists, and other "Western Idealists" (i.e. liberals) and their influences in Russia. Some beleive that FD predicted the Russian Revolution with this book."
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