The Possessed. A Russian Classic of Revolution, Betrayal and Ideological Fanaticism (Also Known as Demons)

A revolutionary cell. A small town. A murder that was always going to happen. Into a sleepy provincial Russian town comes Pyotr Verkhovensky, a charismatic revolutionary who binds a small circle of idealists, opportunists, and lost souls into a secret society - then methodically uses their loyalty to destroy them. Loosely based on a real political murder that shocked Russia, The Possessed (also translated as Demons) is Fyodor Dostoyevsky's most prophetic novel: a slow descent from provincial gossip and drawing-room philosophy into arson, suicide, and assassination, as abstract ideas about liberation curdle into something closer to a cult. Why readers still turn to this Russian literature classic: - A ferocious, satirical response to the revolutionary nihilism gaining ground in Dostoyevsky's own time - Reads today like a warning issued decades ahead of schedule - ideological fanaticism and manufactured terror rendered with uncomfortable precision - A sprawling cast, dark humor, and genuine dread built entirely out of ideas and loyalty, not violence for its own sake - Ranks alongside Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov among Dostoyevsky's essential political novels Angry, political, and unnervingly relevant, The Possessed is Dostoyevsky at his most urgent - a classic every serious reader of Russian literature should meet at least once.