Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Possessed is a political and social satire, a large scale tragedy, which is considered amongst the four masterworks written by Dostoevsky. This psychological drama is Dostoevsky’s criticism of the political and moral nihilism, which were prevalent in Russia in 1860s. Dostoyevsky’s criticises the spreading atheism and explores a loss by a Russian man of his true national identity. The author sees nihilism as a root of many deepening social problems and in his book portrays the growing suicide rate as an inevitable ultimate self-destructing end. A fictional town somewhere in province becomes a focal point of an attempted revolution and descends into chaos. Stepan Verkhovensky represents an idealistic westernised generation of 1840s, he is a mere helpless accomplice of the 'demonic’ force possessing the town. His son, Pyotr, is a conspirator orchestrating the revolution, while his counterpart in the moral sphere, Nikolai Stavrogin, the protagonist, dominates the book by influencing the hearts and the minds of everyone around him. Pretty illustrations by Dmitrii Rybalko provide you with new impressions from reading this legendary story.

The Possessed

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“God is necessary, and therefore must exist... But I know that he does not and cannot exist... Don't you understand that a man with these two thoughts cannot go on living?“

Stas

Om et skip går under, er rottene de første som forlater det. 

Evan

Stepan Trofimovich knew how to reach into his young friend's heart and pluck the deepest chords and evoke in him the first, still vague sense of that eternal, sacred anguish which some elected souls, once having tasted and known it, would never again exchange for some cheap gratification.

According to his wife, when Dostoyevsky was suffering from toothache, he insisted that the pain was caused by the proximity to Lake Geneva and that he had read about this somewhere.

A large fire at night always creates an exciting and exhilarating impression. That explains the appeal of fireworks; but there the fires are arranged in elegant, symmetrical patterns, and because they are completely harmless, they produce a playful and happy impression, like a glass of champagne. A real fire is another matter: here the horror and a certain sense of personal danger, coupled with the exhilarating impression created by a nighttime fire, produces in the onlooker (not, of course, in the householder who has been completely burnt out) a certain concussion of the brain, and a challenge, as it were, to his own destructive instincts, which - alas! - lurk in every heart, even in the heart of the meekest titular councillor with a loving family.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, if he weren't in love with you like a sheep, he wouldn't be running around the streets like a madman and wouldn't be stirring up all the dogs in town. He broke my window frame.

The Possessed quotes

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