The Possessed

By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Constance Garnett - translator

Narrated by: Constantine Gregory

Length: 27 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Also known as Demons, The Possessed is a powerful socio-political novel about revolutionary ideas and the radicals behind them. It follows the career of Pyotr Stepanovich Verkhovensky, a political terrorist who leads a group of nihilists on a demonic quest for societal breakdown. They are consumed by their desires and ideals, and have surrendered themselves fully to the darkness of their "demons". This possession leads them to engulf a quiet provincial town and subject it to a storm of violence. Inspired by a real political killing in 1869, the book is an impassioned response to the ideologies of European liberalism and nihilism, which threatened Russian Orthodoxy; it eerily predicted the Russian Revolution, which would take place 50 years later. Funny, shocking, and tragic, it is a profound and affecting work with deep philosophical discourses about God, human freedom and political revolution.

Translation by Constance Garnett; appendix translated by S. S. Koteliansky and Virginia Woolf.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

Public Domain (P)2017 Naxos AudioBooks

Womderful

I’ve tried for years to read this novel but was never able to get through it. There are several dozen characters - more even than usual for Dostoevsky (I think) - and the Russian names, always a daunting task to keep straight, are overwhelming. The novel takes a very long time introducing the characters and setting up the main action.

Constantine Gregory’s reading (of Constance Garnett’s translation) somehow made most of those problems go away. I had the benefit of my list of names from previous attempts, and maybe that helped. The main story still takes awhile to get moving, but Gregory infuses both narration and dialogue with a liveliness and humor that had escaped me earlier. Some of the scenes that confused me earlier now seem hilariously over the top - in a good way.

Many of the characters suffer from a claustrophobic self-consciousness - practically a trademark of Dostoevsky’s. The narrator is a little odd, partly in and partly out of the action: a member of the community, a friend of Stepan Verkovensky, but sometimes omniscient, and possibly unreliable. Three men in particular dominate the action: Stepan Verkovensky, an aging writer, philosopher, and poseur; his son Pyotr; and Pyotr’s cohort and erstwhile friend Nikolai Stavrogin, an aristocrat whose actions always tend toward the unexpected.

Pyotr Verkovensky is a particularly complex and nasty character. He babbles on endlessly, in the most obnoxious way; yet in his babbling he manages to brutally insult his father, threaten Nikolai Stavrogin, and humiliate the local governor, who claims an awareness of his subversive activities. While he turns out NOT to be the main character, Pyotr is in fact the man who sets most of the action in motion. That action expands to include several murders, arson, a woman beaten to death by a mob, a duel, and several suicides. It’s all in the service of misguided youthful nihilism.

There is an appendix, which is difficult to listen to but should not be skipped. It’s a chapter that Dostoevsky was forced by his publisher to omit because it describes a descent into horror, on the part of Stavrogin, that is no less horrible for its omission of any explicit detail. Dostoevsky was right that it’s essential to an understanding of Stavrogin’s character - thief, poisoner, and child rapist that he is. Omitting it would be like omitting the Grand Inquisitor chapter from the Brothers Karamazov.

Constantine Gregory is a wonderful narrator, always finding what seems to me exactly the right tone to strike in a given scene, and keeping all the characters straight with clear distinctions in pitch and accent. I look forward to hearing his other Naxos readings of Dostoevsky.

narrator is beyond belief!

i love all of dostoyevsky s books, but this fellow brings them to life like no other ..

INSANE

This book is really slow to begin reading and listening to when compared to Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment. I will say however, that when chapter 49 hits Dostoevsky and Constantine take you on a serious ride. The way they can get you so reluctantly involved in the everyday lives of the characters and then throwing in real chaos that is also available to destroy your life as well as the characters in the story is true mastery of craft. They are so good at it that my review isnt even a spoiler for what's to come, Dostoevsky will envelope you in a new world and then turn it upside down for fun. Shatov is a perfect example.

Excellent, excellent, excellent...

...a wonderfully entertaining critique of nihilism (so skillfully penned by Dostoevsky's hand and mind). Stepan and Varvara might as well be boomer college dean and donors (respectively)... Pyotr might as well be a... a young narcissistic Marxist agitator... oddly relevant to today. The 'Girl-Student' and 'Boy Student' are wonderful mirrors for 'educated' thought today. Again, wonderfully entertaining (even outside of it's psychological and social relevance).

A masterpiece

I never stop wondering about the classic Russian Literature. Full of personages and singular trama. It contains everything, almost. Love this book

Better than Anna K.

a modern book in many ways. An interesting look into the intellectual thought of Russia pre-revolution.

a possessed story

What made the experience of listening to The Possessed the most enjoyable?

Constantine Gregory makes what would otherwise be an extremely difficult to follow narrative almost enjoyable. His nuances of accents and almost comical over-emphasis of some of the characters is at first a bit unusual, but becomes indispensable. Dostoyevsky's books, to me, is ALL about the dialogues. The Possessed may feel like it takes a very long time to get off the mark, and even when it does, I was constantly expecting more activity from the story - only to settle into a very deep, immersive drama that is acted out in the dialogues. And how about that final chapter on Stavrogin's Confession. OMG! I did not see that coming and it almost overshadowed the entire book in itself. This is a book that will stay with you for the rest of your life.

What other book might you compare The Possessed to and why?

I listened to Of Crime and Punishment some time ago - also written by Dostoyevsky and narrated by Constance Gregory. If you liked Of Crime and Punishment you may find The Possessed to stand back slightly - but not much.

Which character – as performed by Constantine Gregory – was your favorite?

Oh there's no doubt about this one - Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky. Although I had no trouble imagining the ever so well animated Varvara Petrovna Stavrogina.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The character Stepan Trofimovich provides moments of comical diversion but this is not a book of laughter. The fate of Shatov and Kirillov as well as the Stavrogin's Confession was very emotional.

Any additional comments?

The story is long and feels like it is filled with (literally) hours of unnecessary detail - but it becomes essential to the point where I am sometimes disappointed that the author did not go into even MORE detail. Considering the very different time and setting to what most users would be familiar with - it is necessary for detail as it fills out much could otherwise only be achieved in a movie (where a picture could tell a thousand words). I think Dostoyevsky didn't have a movie to tell his story with, so he used the thousand words. This was a story told to the level of detail where one can close your eyes and be transported to the provincial Russia in the 1860's.

Amazing Reader!

Deeply convoluted story, for sure, would have been hard to get through simply reading. The voice acting was a solid 10 out of 10 and made the whole story much more enjoyable!

Slower start than other Dostoyevsky works

Only complaint for me was that it was a much slower start than the previous works I have read by Dostoevsky (the Idiot, Crime and Punishment). I also had a difficult time sorting out the characters initially and especially figuring out what part each character played in the story, since every single character is developed until you are sick of it. That being said, there was much to think about in this novel, such as political influences, how peer pressure and the mob mentality can drive people to do things they would never do alone, and the callousness and violent acts that those who are possessed by a “great idea” can have towards everyone else if by any means they can achieve their goals. Nikolai was a very odd character that was difficult to understand for the majority of the book, but the epilogue gives much needed background that Dostoevsky intended to include at the end of part two but which he was unable to do because of the editor’s deeming it inappropriate. Pyotr was perhaps the character I disliked the most, as he was manipulative, and stirring up trouble and strife everywhere he could, yet always managed to escape the blame for the actions he incited others to take. Overall great story, much to reflect on. On to Brothers K.

lisping annoyance

i am several hours into this book and i cannot finish it. i liked CnP and Notes, but this narrator is doing this horrible lisping voice for one of the main characters and it's garbage. nobody wants to listen to that crap. what a waste