The Possessed (also The Devils) is a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It follows characters in provincial Russia drawn into revolutionary and nihilistic ideas, amid questions of faith, ideology, and moral confusion. It is worth listening to for its psychological depth and portrait of a society in upheaval.
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Cover of the original edition (Project Gutenberg, public domain).
Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
THE POSSESSED or, The Devils A Novel In Three Parts By Fyodor Dostoevsky Translated From The Russian By Constance Garnett 1916 Contents PART I.
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER II. PRINCE HARRY. MATCHMAKING CHAPTER III. THE SINS OF OTHERS CHAPTER IV. THE CRIPPLE CHAPTER V. THE SUBTLE SERPENT PART II. CHAPTER I. NIGHT CHAPTER II. NIGHT (continued) CHAPTER III. THE DUEL CHAPTER IV. ALL IN EXPECTATION CHAPTER V. ON THE EVE OF THE FETE CHAPTER VI. PYOTR STEPANOVITCH IS BUSY CHAPTER VII. A MEETING CHAPTER VIII. IVAN THE TSAREVITCH CHAPTER IX. A RAID AT STEPAN TROFIMOVITCH’S CHAPTER X. FILIBUSTERS. A FATAL MORNING PART III. CHAPTER I. THE FETE—FIRST PART CHAPTER II. THE END OF THE FETE CHAPTER III. A ROMANCE ENDED CHAPTER IV. THE LAST RESOLUTION CHAPTER V. A WANDERER CHAPTER VI. A BUSY NIGHT CHAPTER VII. STEPAN TROFIMOVITCH’S LAST WANDERING CHAPTER VIII. CONCLUSION
“Strike me dead, the track has vanished, Well, what now? We’ve lost the way, Demons have bewitched our horses, Led us in the wilds astray. “What a number! Whither drift they? What’s the mournful dirge they sing? Do they hail a witch’s marriage Or a goblin’s burying?” A. Pushkin. “And there was one herd of many swine feeding on this mountain; and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. “Then went the devils out of the man and entered into the swine; and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake and were choked. “When they that fed them saw what was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country. “Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.” Luke, ch. viii. 32-37.
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