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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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date published: 1954
ISBN-13:9780140440355ISBN:0140440356
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. Highlighting/underlining. Some edge/spine/corner wear, flexible some, some underlines. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 704 p. Penguin Classics. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780192818508ISBN:0192818503
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date published: 1954-02-28
ISBN-13:9780140440355ISBN:0140440356
Description: Very good. Very minimal damage to the cover (no holes or tears, only minimal scuff marks), in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, minimal to no highlighting/under. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date published: 1954
ISBN-13:9780140440355ISBN:0140440356
Description: Good. Book shows minor use. Cover and Binding have minimal wear and the pages have only minimal creases. A tradition of southern quality and service. All books guaranteed at the Atlanta Book Company. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date published: 1954
ISBN-13:9780140440355ISBN:0140440356
Description: VG Used, Very Good in VG jacket. PAPERBACK, VG/VG, Penguin Classics, 1954, 1.2 in. H x 7 in. L x 4.4 in. W, 11.7 oz. This copy has visible but minimal creasing of the spine, appears to have been very lightly read, is in otherwise Very Good condition. Note: expect tanning of any paperback more than a few years old, regardless of condition. read more
Edition: 16th printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books; Penguin Classics, Harmondsworth
Date published: 1971
ISBN-13:9780140440355ISBN:0140440356
Description: Good. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. xvii, 704 pp.; 18 cm. Firm binding, creased/bowed spine. Clean inside copy. Browning. "Denounced by radical critics as the work of a reactionary, this powerful story of Russian terrorists who plot destruction only to murder one of their own seethes with provocative political opinions. / Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881), one of nineteenth-century Russia's greatest novelists, spent four years in a convict prison in Siberia, after which he was obliged to enlist in the ... read more
Binding: Trade PB
Publisher: Penguin Books, London, England
Date published: 1965
Description: Very Good. No Dj. 1965 Trade PB. Penguin Books. 669 pgs. Slight shelf wear. Owner Note on Title pg. Otherwise book in excellent condition. Pgs are clean and binding is tight. A political drama. Hailed as a grim prophecy of the Russian Revolution and denounced as the work fo a reactionary renegade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
Date published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780192818508ISBN:0192818503
Description: Good. A slight tan to the page edges. Good, clean condition book. Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Date published: 1954-02-01
ISBN-13:9780140440355ISBN:0140440356
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: 9780140440355. read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin, London
Date published: 1978
ISBN-13:9780140440355ISBN:0140440356
Description: Good. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. PB, pictorial card covers, G/--, 704pp. Major rubbing, scuffing, creasing to covers, chipping to lower fr corner, inside is better, with tanning to page edges, some lower corners dog-eared, else square & tight-a solid study or reading copy, 380g when packed. read more
Edition: Reprint with Appendix
Binding: Paper Back
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd, London, United Kingdom
Date published: 1971
ISBN-13:9780140440355ISBN:0140440356
Description: Near Fine. Clean, bright copy with 704 pages. read more
""So this God exists in your opinion?" "He doesn't, yet he does. There is no pain in the stone, but there is pain in the fear of the stone. God is the pain of the fear of death. He who overcomes pain and fear will himself become God. Then there will be a new life, a new man, everything new... Then history will be divided into two parts: from the gorilla to the destruction of God, and from the destruction of God..." "To the gorilla?" "...to the physical changing of earth and man. Man will be God and will change physically. And the world will change, and deeds will change, and thoughts, and all feelings. What do you think, will man then change physically?""
"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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