Name: Les Possédés
Rating: 4.375 (58 reviews)
ISBN: 9782253018254

Georges Philippenko

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Les Possédés

Demons is a novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, first published in the journal The Russian Messenger in 1871-2. It is considered one of the four masterworks written by Dostoyevsky after his return from Siberian exile, along with Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). Demons is a social and political satire, a psychological drama, and large scale tragedy. Joyce Carol Oates has described it as "Dostoevsky's most confused and violent novel, and his most satisfactorily 'tragic' work." According to Ronald Hingley, it is Dostoyevsky's "greatest onslaught on Nihilism", and "one of humanity's most impressive achievements-perhaps even its supreme achievement-in the art of prose fiction."Demons is an allegory of the potentially catastrophic consequences of the political and moral nihilism that were becoming prevalent in Russia in the 1860s. A fictional town descends into chaos as it becomes the focal point of an attempted revolution, orchestrated by master conspirator Pyotr Verkhovensky. The mysterious aristocratic figure of Nikolai Stavrogin-Verkhovensky's counterpart in the moral sphere-dominates the book, exercising an extraordinary influence over the hearts and minds of almost all the other characters. The idealistic, western-influenced generation of the 1840s, epitomized in the character of Stepan Verkhovensky (who is both Pyotr Verkhovensky's father and Nikolai Stavrogin's childhood teacher), are presented as the unconscious progenitors and helpless accomplices of the 'demonic' forces that take possession of the town.

The Possessed, the Devils

Demons

An interesting read whose historical depth and scope is surely too large for just about any living reader to fully grasp (and I cannot imagine how few people at the time of release could fully understand this book, either). I suppose this can encourage rereads, research, and discussions -- but for an "average", layman reader like myself, I think reading "Demons" was honestly a bad choice for leisure, and I should not have (unknowingly, until it was too late) plunged right into the deep end of Dostoevsky's literature.

This is my first and likely only reading of "Demons", so on a surface level, I think the world Dostoevsky built is extremely detailed and without a doubt has a pulse. Our Russian setting is unnamed but is given enough lively characters inside of it that it feels very real, and I think is the book's greatest strength. I believed in every character outside of a couple absurd ones, namely Shatov and Kirillov. Compared to everyone else in town, these two felt props among people, even though the endnotes make it clear that many people are real-world representatives.

Stepan was my favorite, he was such a shitty person (who'd birth an even worse son) who felt very real if you know any narcissists, yet he'd find a way to make you smile. The narrator had a great and very real relationship with Stepan, I enjoyed their conversations together greatly; the narrator was a close second favorite.

This book has so much going on, so much historical subtext that even with the many pages of researched endnotes, I knew I wasn't close to getting everything. This work of literature is certainly an important thing, but also a bloated one if you're just some guy trying to read a "classic". Despite a lot of life, this book felt very dry at times, and I was not terribly happy with its ending.

Without knowing too much about Dostoevsky -- though I intend to read more of his -- from what I saw here in the novel and in his own words quoted in endnotes, I'm worried the guy really just said "God is the answer" to a lot of life's problems. Considering how much depth he was capable of, I'm worried about this shallow response in planned future readings.

I sort of recommend "Demons". This book would have really, really affected me if I was an ultra-well-read Christian Russian political science student in the 1880s. For an American idiot in 2025, I think it was a enjoyable ride with merit but also its fair share of bumps and slogs.

Evan

An interesting read whose historical depth and scope is surely too large for just about any living reader to fully grasp (and I cannot imagine how few people at the time of release could fully understand this book, either). I suppose this can encourage rereads, research, and discussions -- but for an "average", layman reader like myself, I think reading "Demons" was honestly a bad choice for leisure, and I should not have (unknowingly, until it was too late) plunged right into the deep end of Dostoevsky's literature.

This is my first and likely only reading of "Demons", so on a surface level, I think the world Dostoevsky built is extremely detailed and without a doubt has a pulse. Our Russian setting is unnamed but is given enough lively characters inside of it that it feels very real, and I think is the book's greatest strength. I believed in every character outside of a couple absurd ones, namely Shatov and Kirillov. Compared to everyone else in town, these two felt props among people, even though the endnotes make it clear that many people are real-world representatives.
Stepan was my favorite, he was such a shitty person (who'd birth an even worse son) who felt very real if you know any narcissists, yet he'd find a way to make you smile. The narrator had a great and very real relationship with Stepan, I enjoyed their conversations together greatly; the narrator was a close second favorite.

This book has so much going on, so much historical subtext that even with the many pages of researched endnotes, I knew I wasn't close to getting everything. This work of literature is certainly an important thing, but also a bloated one if you're just some guy trying to read a "classic". Despite a lot of life, this book felt very dry at times, and I was not terribly happy with its ending.

Without knowing too much about Dostoevsky -- though I intend to read more of his -- from what I saw here in the novel and in his own words quoted in endnotes, I'm worried the guy really just said "God is the answer" to a lot of life's problems. Considering how much depth he was capable of, I'm worried about this shallow response in planned future readings.

I sort of recommend "Demons". This book would have really, really affected me if I was an ultra-well-read Christian Russian political science student in the 1880s. For an American idiot in 2025, I think it was a enjoyable ride with merit but also its fair share of bumps and slogs.

 so i can make summer double feature read jokes about it and le guin’s 

i also should have reviewed it much closer to when i finished but i mostly just clocked out of existence for a straight week after bc this might have easily become my new favourite dostoevsky. no shame in admitting i was a raskolnikov initiate in the same way everyone who read

 the year it came out thought they could scratch the boris itch by reading 

 has a texture that the other dostoevsky novels are too polished (?) to completely attain and in achieving that has ironically resulted in a read that struck me as chilling when i least expected it the way that the neatness of sophoclean endings is always so eerie and purgatorial. it’s like hearing your own footsteps in a dark, empty alley and every now and then you’ll catch the sound of water splashing under your shoe but you can’t see puddles anywhere and don’t know when it will happen next. that’s 

too many of the johan lieberts of the world fall prey to becoming a vessel for the conclusion paragraph of their respective story’s thesis, and stavrogin is no different, but perhaps bc of the real life ties, dostoevsky was devastatingly razor-sharp about going all in when he needed to and holding back when he didn’t, and the result saves characters from being forgettable even as unapologetic caricatures or mere embodied ideology. i was scared, though. like, you’re all realistic and great and i loved reading your perspectives but respectfully, i want to go home, we live in a society, etc.

is certainly nowhere close to dethroning dostoevsky’s masterpieces on a traditional basis (which i suppose is something of a moot point anyway); it has something of a zigzag narrative, and the structuring at times (only at times!) feels like a “well… this will do” fix to give such big birds eye view storytelling some corralling it didn’t need. but god, was it enjoyable. and so horrific. it’s got range. and it’s well-deservedly thick. 

that first section was insane of dostoevsky to open with. 

it did make me genuinely contemplate ending it all :) not a novel to read when you don’t want your already immense general nihilism and misanthropy affirmed. but that’s more a reflection on the current state of the world and the ways we continue to define connection to both things bigger than us and each other and lack thereof vs. the state of the world 

 in the end, did i really need any convincing about things i believed to be unchanging about other people anyway? probably not. 

kind of wish i knew this novel first as the possessed so i can make summer double feature read jokes about it and le guin’s the dispossessed (ᵕ • ᴗ •)

i also should have reviewed it much closer to when i finished but i mostly just clocked out of existence for a straight week after bc this might have easily become my new favourite dostoevsky. no shame in admitting i was a raskolnikov initiate in the same way everyone who read the goldfinch the year it came out thought they could scratch the boris itch by reading crime and punishment, but demons has a texture that the other dostoevsky novels are too polished (?) to completely attain and in achieving that has ironically resulted in a read that struck me as chilling when i least expected it the way that the neatness of sophoclean endings is always so eerie and purgatorial. it’s like hearing your own footsteps in a dark, empty alley and every now and then you’ll catch the sound of water splashing under your shoe but you can’t see puddles anywhere and don’t know when it will happen next. that’s demons. 

too many of the johan lieberts of the world fall prey to becoming a vessel for the conclusion paragraph of their respective story’s thesis, and stavrogin is no different, but perhaps bc of the real life ties, dostoevsky was devastatingly razor-sharp about going all in when he needed to and holding back when he didn’t, and the result saves characters from being forgettable even as unapologetic caricatures or mere embodied ideology. i was scared, though. like, you’re all realistic and great and i loved reading your perspectives but respectfully, i want to go home, we live in a society, etc.

demons is certainly nowhere close to dethroning dostoevsky’s masterpieces on a traditional basis (which i suppose is something of a moot point anyway); it has something of a zigzag narrative, and the structuring at times (only at times!) feels like a “well… this will do” fix to give such big birds eye view storytelling some corralling it didn’t need. but god, was it enjoyable. and so horrific. it’s got range. and it’s well-deservedly thick. and that first section was insane of dostoevsky to open with. 

it did make me genuinely contemplate ending it all :) not a novel to read when you don’t want your already immense general nihilism and misanthropy affirmed. but that’s more a reflection on the current state of the world and the ways we continue to define connection to both things bigger than us and each other and lack thereof vs. the state of the world then. in the end, did i really need any convincing about things i believed to be unchanging about other people anyway? probably not. 

One of Dostoyevsky’s most famous novels, this 1872 work utilizes five main characters and their philosophical ideas to describe the political chaos of Imperial Russia in the nineteenth century. Based on an actual event involving the murder of a revolutionary by his comrades, this novel depicts a band of ruthless radicals attempting to incite revolt in their small, rural community. At the center of “Demons” lies Dostoyevsky’s desire to protest the enthusiasm for revolution he saw all around him, as well as the conservative establishment’s inability to cope with those revolutionary ideas or their consequences. The author considered utopias unobtainable, and he depicts the radicals and the ideas they represent with a frightening savage intensity, as if they were possessed by demons rather than those unrealistic ideas. Perhaps the greatest political novel ever written, Dostoyevsky’s “Demons” fully displays his devastating condemnation of human manipulation through brilliant characterization, as well as his keen and seemingly clairvoyant insight into the hearts of men. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper and follows the translation of Constance Garnett.
(back cover)

I’m not sure how I should feel after reading the final chapters. When I initially thought this novel was so boring that I put it down for over three months (which led to a serious reading slump), I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s Dostoevsky, after all—what else could I have expected? This new sensation, this intense mix of emotions, is dominated by both awe and disgust at the same time... And yes, I mean this in a completely fanatic way regarding the book. The narrative took a complete turn after diving into several political issues and introducing the ‘demons’. From that moment, I knew I would never regret picking up Dostoevsky again. His mastery is unmatched, and this time I can’t shake the feeling that 

 represents his ultimate literary peak which is quite incomparable to his other works. It’s enigmatic, unpredictable, and full of twists you’d never see coming. Truly, it feels like witchcraft.

🏹

I’m not sure how I should feel after reading the final chapters. When I initially thought this novel was so boring that I put it down for over three months (which led to a serious reading slump), I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s Dostoevsky, after all—what else could I have expected? This new sensation, this intense mix of emotions, is dominated by both awe and disgust at the same time... And yes, I mean this in a completely fanatic way regarding the book. The narrative took a complete turn after diving into several political issues and introducing the ‘demons’. From that moment, I knew I would never regret picking up Dostoevsky again. His mastery is unmatched, and this time I can’t shake the feeling that Demons represents his ultimate literary peak which is quite incomparable to his other works. It’s enigmatic, unpredictable, and full of twists you’d never see coming. Truly, it feels like witchcraft.

�Est-il possible de croire? S�rieusement et effectivement? Tout est l�.� Stavroguine envo�te tous ceux qui l'approchent, hommes ou femmes. Il ne trouve de limite � son immense orgueil que dans l'existence de Dieu. Il la nie et tombe dans l'absurdit� de la libert� pour un homme seul et sans raison d'�tre. Tous les personnages de ce grand roman sont poss�d�s par un d�mon, le socialisme ath�e, le nihilisme r�volutionnaire ou la superstition religieuse. Ignorant les limites de notre condition, ces id�ologies sont incapables de rendre compte de l'homme et de la soci�t� et appellent un terrorisme destructeur. Sombre trag�die d'amour et de mort, �Les Poss�d�s� sont l'incarnation g�niale des doutes et des angoisses de Dosto�evski sur l'avenir de l'homme et de la Russie. D�s 1870, il avait pressenti les dangers du totalitarisme au XXe si�cle.

Un Roman de l'écrivain Russe Fyodor Dostoïevski (texte Intégral)

Safiya 

Alea jacta est !
Le drame poétique !
Ceci n'est pas une oeuvre esthétique, "vient ensuite, naturellement, la sentimentalité,qui chez nous est le plus efficace agent de la propagande socialiste."
Se non è vero è bene trovato...

Motivado por um episódio verídico - o assassinato do estudante I. I. Ivanov pelo grupo niilista liderado por S. G. Nietcháiev em 1869 -, Os demônios, escrito no ano seguinte, é a única obra de Dostoiévski concebida com fins assumidamente panfletários. Entretanto, ao recriar ficcionalmente aquele evento, o escritor acabou compondo uma obra-prima à altura de Crime e castigo e Os irmãos Karamázov, que é também um estudo em profundidade do pensamento político, social, filosófico e religioso de seu tempo.
     Com incrível lucidez e rara compreensão da história, este romance - pela primeira vez traduzido a partir do original russo - chega a ser profético. Nele o leitor poderá vislumbrar, no drama intelectual de Kiríllov, a antecipação do Zaratustra de Nietzsche, e, nas ideias de Chigalióv e Piotr Stiepánovitch, os cruéis fanatismos de Hitler e Stálin. Numa época em que a violência, a ignorância, o terrorismo e a impostura ideológica - verdadeiros demônios que assolaram o século XX - continuam vivos sob novos disfarces, este é um livro de impressionante atualidade.

source: http://www.editora34.com.br/detalhe.asp?id=294&busca=9788573263053

Os demônios

Camila

Devils, also known in English as The Possessed and The Demons, was first published in 1871-2. The third of Dostoevsky's five major novels, it is at once a powerful political tract and a profound study of atheism, depicting the disarray which follows the appearance of a band of modish radicals in a small provincial town. Dostoevsky compares infectious radicalism to the devils that drove the Gadarene swine over the precipice in his vision of a society possessed by demonic creatures that produce devastating delusions of rationality. Dostoevsky weaves suicide, rape, and a multiplicity of scandals into a compelling story of political evil, yet he is at his most humorous in Devils: the novel is full of buffoonery and a grotesque comedy.

This new translation also includes the chapter `Stavrogin's Confession', which was initially considered to be too shocking to print. In this edition it appears where the author originally intended it. 

--back cover

Devils

Jawad

Бесы

Vadim Varchenko 

Counter Inspired by the true story of a political murder that horried Russians in 1869, Fyodor Dostoevsky conceived of Demons as a "novel-pamphlet" in which he would say everything about the plague of materialist ideology that he saw infecting his native land. What emerged was a prophetic and ferociously funny masterpiece of ideology and murder in pre-revolutionary Russia. 
--publisher's description

Les Possédés

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