
Category: Adults, Classic, Historical Fiction
Language: EnglishKeywords: 1900's Russia Social Conditions
Written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Read by George Guidall
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 48 Kbps
Unabridged
Release Date:03-20-13
Publisher: Recorded Books
Length: 28 hrs and 3 mins
Edited and translated by Michael R. Katz
Oxford World’s Classics
The third of Dostoevsky’s five major novels, Devils (1871-2), also known as The Possessed or Demons, is at once a powerful political tract and a profound study of atheism, depicting the disarray that follows the appearance of a band of modish radicals in a small provincial town.
The title refers to the infestation of foreign political and philosophical ideas that swept Russia in the second half of the 19th century. Pevear writes in the introduction, “These demons, then, are ideas, that legion of -isms that came to Russia from the West: idealism, rationalism, empiricism, materialism, utilitarianism, positivism, socialism, anarchism, nihilism, and, underlying them all, atheism.” Dostoevsky, taking as his starting point the political chaos around him at the time, constructs an elaborate morality tale in which the people of a provincial town turn against one another because they are convinced of the infallibility of their ideas.
Stepan Trofimovich, an affable thinker who does little to turn his liberal ideas into action, creates a monster in his student, Nikolai Vsevolodovich Stavrogin, who takes his spiritual father’s teaching to heart, joining a circle of other nihilists who will justify any and all violent excesses for the sake of their ideas. Stavrogin aims for a “systematic corrupting of society and all its principles” so that out of the resulting destruction he may “raise the banner of rebellion.” It is chilling foreshadowing of Stalinist logic.
This is not my rip. My thanks to the original uploaded.
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
Release Date:03-20-13
Publisher: Recorded Books
Length: 28 hrs and 3 mins
Edited and translated by Michael R. Katz
Oxford World’s Classics
The third of Dostoevsky’s five major novels, Devils (1871-2), also known as The Possessed or Demons, is at once a powerful political tract and a profound study of atheism, depicting the disarray that follows the appearance of a band of modish radicals in a small provincial town.
The title refers to the infestation of foreign political and philosophical ideas that swept Russia in the second half of the 19th century. Pevear writes in the introduction, “These demons, then, are ideas, that legion of -isms that came to Russia from the West: idealism, rationalism, empiricism, materialism, utilitarianism, positivism, socialism, anarchism, nihilism, and, underlying them all, atheism.” Dostoevsky, taking as his starting point the political chaos around him at the time, constructs an elaborate morality tale in which the people of a provincial town turn against one another because they are convinced of the infallibility of their ideas.
Stepan Trofimovich, an affable thinker who does little to turn his liberal ideas into action, creates a monster in his student, Nikolai Vsevolodovich Stavrogin, who takes his spiritual father’s teaching to heart, joining a circle of other nihilists who will justify any and all violent excesses for the sake of their ideas. Stavrogin aims for a “systematic corrupting of society and all its principles” so that out of the resulting destruction he may “raise the banner of rebellion.” It is chilling foreshadowing of Stalinist logic.
This is not my rip. My thanks to the original uploaded.
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