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The Possessed cover art

The Possessed

By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Narrated by: Patrick Cullen
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Summary

Loosely based on sensational press reports of a Moscow student’s murder by fellow revolutionists, The Possessed depicts the destructive chaos caused by outside agitators who move into a provincial town.

The enigmatic Stavrogin dominates the novel. His magnetic personality influences his tutor, the liberal intellectual poseur Stepan Verhovensky, and the teacher’s revolutionary son Pyotr, as well as other radicals.

Stavrogin is portrayed as a man of strength without direction, capable of goodness and nobility. When Stavrogin loses his faith in God, however, he is seized by brutal desires he does not fully understand.

Widely considered the greatest political novel ever written, The Possessed showcases Dostoevsky’s brilliant characterization, amazing insight into the human heart, and crushing criticism of the desire to manipulate the thought and behavior of others.

Public Domain (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about The Possessed

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Powerful Story

This is a wonderful story with Dostoyevsky really at the height of his powers - I believe this was written shortly before The Brothers Karamazov and served as a build up to it, touching on many similar themes. As with other classic Dostoyevsky is is about love and death, meaning and God, the old and the new, religion and science, but always with wonderful characters and inventive and touching story lines.

Something I'd like Audible to consider is making a synopsis of an audio book available. With a story like this it is sometimes possible to miss a key fact or statement and then you are left a little stranded for the rest of the chapter, I found I had to go back to the book to check I had understood what was happening, which isn't really the point of having an audio book.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A great book ruined by the reader

Would you try another book written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky or narrated by Patrick Cullen?

I certainly wouldn't buy anything that Patrick Cullen reads.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I don't know. Cullen's reading was so monotonous and irritating.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

There was hardly any differentiation in the voices, so it was often difficult to know which character was speaking but even worse, Cullen had the habit of suddenly throwing a sharp and completely unnecessary emphasis on a couple of words--usually towards the end of the sentence. It was like someone drumming the table with his fingers in an endlessly repeating pattern. It was just awful.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Possessed?

I can't tell you much about the book, my appreciation of it was completely spoiled by the reader's performance.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

this book is genius

this book hasn't aged a wrinkle, what's more it was ahead of its time also.
forget the karmazows the crimes and punishments, which are still incandescent literature, the possessed comforts me in the idea of Dostojewski as a genius.

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