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Title: The Possessed
Series:
(The Russians)
Author: Fyodor
Dostoyevsky
Translator: Constance
Garnett
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre:
Classic
Pages: 775
Words:
253K
Publish: 1872
After reading the synopsis from Grokipedia (down below), I’m pretty
sure that Constance Garnett did some judicious victorian censoring in
her “translation” of this. It is that or I completely glossed
over whole episodes happening, like one of the female characters
killing herself. Now, that is possible. This is a BIG fat book and I
was dealing with a pinched nerve when finishing it up, so I could
easily have missed that. But I don’t think so, because a character
killing herself by drowning is memorable, no matter how much
discomfort one is in. Plus, I remember her suicide being mentioned by
the townsfolk and thinking to myself “when did THAT happen?”
This is a story about a group of Nihilists (nihilists later morphed
into our modern day communists) trying to destroy a town,
psychologically, religiously and physically. Dostoyevsky wrote this
as a warning against such revolutionists and because they form a
large part of the narrative it should have been very depressing to
me, but it wasn’t. I attribute that mainly to Dostoyevsky making it
clear that these are bad men and their philosophy is the utter
ruination, on all levels, of any who practice it. There is no praise
for such filth and Dostoyevsky presents it as evil, as it is. There
is no hero in this book and for once, I was ok with that.
That being said, Dostoyevsky portrays Russian Character and I must
say, it is not flattering at all. The more I read of the Russians,
the more I am convinced that they are a bunch of weak willed,
spineless man babies with the emotional depth of 5 year olds OR they
are tyrannical brutes. This might be unfair, but if you were to
characterize the English based on Dickens’ novels, you’d get a
much more mixed result. Out of control emotionalism seems to dominate
the russian character and I dislike that intensely.
I took my time reading this (it took me almost 3 weeks) and didn’t
take any notes. I just kind of marinated in it and I rather enjoyed
reading it that way. I knew it wouldn’t make for a great review,
but I wanted to simply experience the book and hang everything else.
Now I have experienced the book, given it 5 stars and think it is
close to one of the best Dostoyevsky’s I’ve read yet.
★★★★★
From Grokipedia
Part One
The narrative of Demons opens in a provincial
Russian town in the early 1860s, as recounted by the local
chronicler Anton Lavrentyevich G—v, who has observed events over
several years.[34] The introduction focuses on Stepan
Trofimovich Verkhovensky, a retired liberal intellectual and
former tutor, whose dramatic life and exaggerated sense of
persecution stem from his minor involvement in radical circles two
decades earlier.[35] Stepan has lived for twenty years under
the patronage of Varvara Petrovna Stavrogina, a wealthy and
imperious widow who employed him to educate her only son, Nikolai
Vsevolodovich Stavrogin.[34] Their relationship, marked by
intense quarrels and reconciliations, reflects Varvara's admiration
for Stepan's refinement alongside her frustration with his indolence
and hypochondria.[36]Nikolai Stavrogin, now twenty-five, returns to
the town after an absence of several years spent in Petersburg and
abroad, immediately stirring controversy with his enigmatic demeanor
and past indiscretions.[34] In the capital, as a young officer,
he publicly humiliated a fellow club member by pulling his nose and
bit the ear of the governor's wife during a social gathering, acts
that led to his resignation from military service and
a bout of brain fever requiring medical seclusion.[35] Upon
recovery, Stavrogin travels Europe for three years, forming
a close but undefined attachment to Elizaveta Nikolaevna Tushina
(Liza), the beautiful daughter of a general's widow, though
their bond ends in mutual disillusionment.[34] Varvara Petrovna,
informed of these events during her own European visits, retrieves
her ward Darya Pavlovna (Dasha) from service with Liza's family and
proposes that the impoverished Stepan marry Dasha, securing his
financial future while preserving social appearances.[36]The plot
introduces peripheral radicals and eccentrics who orbit the Stavrogin
household, foreshadowing ideological tensions. Ivan Pavlovich Shatov,
a former serf turned Slavophile, loses his position as a clerk due
to his outspoken nationalism and grapples with personal
failures, including the abandonment of his wife after
her infidelity.[34] Alexey Nilych Kirillov, an engineer
obsessed with proving human autonomy through voluntary suicide,
resides nearby and engages in philosophical debates.[35] Captain
Ignat Lebyadkin, a drunken bully, mistreats his lame half-sister
Marya Timofyevna, who lives in squalor and harbors delusions of
grandeur, reciting verses and claiming noble connections.[34] Liza
Tushina arrives in town with her mother, pursued by suitor Mavriky
Nikolaevich Drozdov, amid rumors of her past with
Stavrogin.[36]Tensions escalate when Shatov escorts the narrator to
Marya's hovel, revealing her abuse and vague ties to Stavrogin, who
has anonymously supported her.[34] Varvara Petrovna encounters
Marya at church and, mistaking her for a beggar, invites her home out
of charity, only to face chaos as anonymous letters accuse Varvara of
scandals involving Dasha and Stavrogin.[35] Dasha admits
forwarding 300 rubles from Stavrogin to Lebyadkin on his
instructions, fueling suspicions of a secret
connection.[34] Lebyadkin intrudes, behaving erratically, while
Pyotr Stepanovich Verkhovensky—Stepan's estranged son and a sly
agitator—arrives unannounced, hinting
at revolutionary schemes.[36]Part One culminates in a
strained drawing-room gathering at Varvara's estate, attended by
local notables including the governor's wife Yulia Mihailovna von
Lembke, Liza, and the radicals.[34] Revelations emerge: Pyotr
exposes Stavrogin's secret marriage to Marya four years
prior in Petersburg, a union prompted by Stavrogin's whim and later
dissolved, with ongoing payments to Lebyadkin for her
upkeep.[35] Enraged by Stavrogin's indifference to these
disclosures and a perceived slight, Shatov publicly boxes his ears,
prompting Liza to faint and society to fracture into gossip and
dueling challenges.[34] Lebyadkin and Marya vanish shortly
after, leaving unresolved mysteries and heightened anticipation among
the characters.[36]
Part Two
Part Two opens amid circulating rumors in the provincial town
following the events at Varvara Petrovna's estate, with Shatov
isolating himself and Stavrogin receiving limited visitors.[33] Pyotr
Verkhovensky actively spreads tales of scandal while
cultivating alliances, including with Yulia Mihailovna von
Lembke, the governor's wife, whom he flatters as a patron of
progressive causes.[37] Kirillov confides in Stavrogin his
intention to commit suicide not from despair but to
transcend humanity by conquering the fear of death,
thereby deifying man as the sole rational being capable
of self-affirmation.[33] Shatov, in contrast, reveals to
Stavrogin a fervent belief in God and the Russian
people as the bearers of authentic Christian socialism, while
accusing Stavrogin of moral corruption for seducing Shatov's wife and
concealing his marriage to Marya Lebyadkina.[33]Stavrogin encounters
Fedka the convict, a fugitive serf who
demands money and hints at future crimes, prompting
Stavrogin to assault him.[33] He then visits Captain Lebyadkin,
who extorts funds to silence knowledge of the secret marriage, and
attempts to reconcile with Marya, who denounces him as an impostor
and refuses recognition.[33] Seeking atonement or
distraction, Stavrogin duels Artemy Pavlych Gaganov, son of a man
whose nose he once pulled; Stavrogin deliberately misses both shots,
emerging unscathed and reflective about his aimless
existence.[33]Pyotr convenes a clandestine meeting at the Virginsky
household with a core group—including himself, Shigalov the
theorist of absolute despotism following societal
destruction, Virginsky the radical host, Shatov the dissenting
Slavophile, and Stavrogin as nominal leader—to outline a plot
for revolutionary subversion modeled on European
cells, emphasizing terror, propaganda, and
eventual dictatorship.[33] Stavrogin's arrival disrupts
the secrecy by openly declaring his disinterest in oaths
or discretion, fracturing the cell's cohesion and prompting
Shatov's outright rejection of the nihilistic agenda.[33] Pyotr
retaliates by anonymously denouncing his own father, Stepan
Trofimovitch, to authorities as a subversive, triggering a
humiliating police raid on Stepan's home.[33]Tensions
escalate with Liza Tushina breaking her engagement to Maurice
Nikolaevich and aligning romantically with Stavrogin, whom Pyotr
manipulates toward a public declaration.[37] Yulia Mihailovna,
envisioning herself as a cultural arbiter, organizes a
literary-musical fête to aid the widow of a
local governess, enlisting speakers like the
pompous novelist Karmazinov and Stepan Trofimovitch for
daytime readings.[33] Pyotr undermines the event by inserting
agitators and delivering a covertly incendiary speech on women's
emancipation and social reform that veils calls for upheaval.[33]The
evening portion devolves into farce and violence: Captain Lebyadkin
appears uninvited, drunkenly reciting inept verses; Pyotr parades the
quadriplegic Semen Yakovlevich as a "new man" exhibit, but
a jealous Polish officer, Filip, fires shots in a fit over a
perceived slight, wounding no one fatally yet igniting panic among
attendees.[33] The chaos spills into brawls, property damage,
and public ridicule of Yulia Mihailovna, who suffers a breakdown as
her ambitions collapse, exposing the fragility of provincial liberal
pretensions amid underlying radical currents.[33]
Part Three
Part Three commences with the long-awaited fête at the governor's
residence, ostensibly a literary-musical gathering to benefit
impoverished governesses, but it rapidly devolves into pandemonium
amid logistical failures, uninvited rabble admitted by conspirators
like Liputin and Lyamshin, and the absence of expected
dignitaries. Yulia Mikhaylovna von Lembke, the event's
patroness, delivers a speech touting progressive ideals, yet the
proceedings are disrupted by Captain Lebyadkin's inebriated outburst
on stage, where he rants incoherently before being ejected, and by
Stavrogin's conspicuous aloofness alongside Liza Tushina's enigmatic
presence. The evening segment attracts elite attendees, including
a quadrille of "literary men," but escalating
tensions culminate in a near-riot, with Pyotr Verkhovensky
manipulating the chaos to undermine authority, foreshadowing broader
societal rupture.[38][39]In the fête's aftermath, a
massive fire engulfs over half the town, attributed by some
to arson amid revolutionary agitation, though official
inquiries falter. Amid the blaze, Pyotr orchestrates
Shatov's assassination by his quintet of followers—Erkel,
Tolkaichenko, and others—who bludgeon him to death near his home
after he refuses to surrender the society's printing press and
affirms his rejection of nihilism. Simultaneously, the charred
corpses of Captain Lebyadkin and his sister Marya,
Stavrogin's clandestine, intellectually disabled wife, are unearthed,
their murders pinned on unidentified perpetrators but sparking
rampant speculation implicating Stavrogin due to his prior ties.
Kirillov, the engineer's philosophical obsession with
self-willed suicide to negate God's existence, fulfills his
pact by shooting himself and forging a note claiming responsibility
for the killings, thereby providing Pyotr an alibi as he
absconds.[40][41]Stavrogin, haunted by moral void, pens a confession
detailing atrocities like the sexual violation of a girl who
subsequently hanged herself, and seeks absolution from the cleric
Tikhon, whose chapter exposing Stavrogin's demonic inertia was
excised from initial editions for its unflinching portrayal of
ideological and personal depravity. Tormented further by Liza's
suicide after fleeing with him to his estate—where she drowns
herself upon discovering his indifference—Stavrogin retreats to
Skvoreshniki and hangs himself from a crossbeam. Stepan Trofimovich,
estranged and itinerant, suffers a stroke during his "last
wandering," experiences a spiritual awakening through encounters
with a Bible-carrying peasant, and dies reconciled to Orthodox faith
under Varvara Petrovna's care on October 20, 1869. Pyotr evades
capture and exiles himself abroad, while the quintet members face
fragmented fates: some confess under interrogation, others perish or
vanish. Varvara, bereft, supports orphans and petitions for
Stavrogin's exoneration, as Darya Shatova weds the prince and the
town limps toward normalcy, its liberal illusions shattered
