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 Stavrogin dominates the novel. His magnetic personality influences 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 Stavrogin 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.
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"This novel is a bit slow-paced in places, as Dostoyevsky's novels often are, but it all culminates in a finale that really packs a punch, and so it's well worth the effort. The narrative follows the doings of a great array of characters (and I admit that at times I had difficulty keeping track of them all) who, in some way or another, come into contact with a small group of revolutionaries secretly plotting to, in some vague manner, disrupt the fabric of Russian society and thereby spur a nationwide uprising. Among those we encounter are socialists, anarchists, nihilists, artisans and poets, and various ne'er-do-wells of both the privileged and peasant classes. There is some high melodrama and a good bit of humor, but it all leads unrelentingly to a tragic and, as the author apparently sees it, inevitable end. Some have praised the novel as a prophecy of the Bolshevik Revolution (of which, Dostoyevsky, had he still been around, would most likely not have approved); however, all one needed to do at the time was read the headlines to know that Russia was near the boiling point as far as the potential for social upheaval was concerned. In fact, to some degree, that's just what Dostoyevsky did, as parts of the novel are drawn directly from real-life incidents.
Dostoyevsky was in many ways a man plagued by contradictions, and this is often reflected in his writing. He aspired to be a champion of religious orthodoxy but could never seem to shake his own doubts about God, and he often tried to present himself as a humanitarian while staunchly defending the Tsar and the system of aristocratic privilege that was nineteenth century Russia. Although he was a keen observer of humanity and could draw characters with a dramatic intensity seldom seen in other writers, as a political critic and analyst he was rather simple. His depictions of revolutionary movements of the time are not at all sympathetic; the characters that are devoted to overthrowing Tsarist oppression are depicted as egomaniacal buffoons, completely lacking in morality or competence. Perhaps some of them were as he depicts them, but it seems unfair, and surely not accurate, to write such a sweeping epic of revolutionary times without at least one slightly heroic figure. Much as I enjoyed this novel, I was left wondering what the author, who was clearly a compassionate chronicler of the human condition, would have suggested as his solution to the ills of his time."
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Steven (4 out of 5 stars)