The Possessed

"The Possessed" (also known in English as "The Devils" and "The Demons") is the greatest novel ever written about the politics of revolution. It is a social and political satire, a psychological drama, and large scale tragedy. Published in 1871, Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel foretold with uncanny prescience events that would occur almost fifty years later during the Bolshevik Revolution and the Communist tyranny that followed. Inspired by the true story of a political murder that horrified Russians in 1869, Dostoevsky conceived of "Demons" as a "novel-pamphlet" in which he would say everything about the plague of materialist ideology that he saw infecting his native land. The novel's relevance, however, is not limited to Russia and its revolution. With its cast of idealistic murderers and suicides, seductive madmen and glamorous fanatics, "The Possessed" is a novel for our time as well.