Ghosts

Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky / Lou Ziliang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-11-01
Features: The Possessed is a major novel by the great 19th-century Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky. The work is based on the 1871 murder case of Russian anarchist Pyotr Nekayev and targets the progressive youth and revolutionary movements of the time with slander and attacks, while also exposing and critiquing the Russian upper bureaucracy and the aristocratic bourgeoisie. Peter Stepanovich, modeled after Nekayev, is a shameless, heartless conspirator and a political charlatan who "made a fortune through revolution." He manipulates the secret organization "The Five," ordering its members to disrupt a charity event organized by the governor's wife. He also uses the pretext of Shatov being suspected of informing on them to coerce the group members into killing Shatov through malicious incitement, deception, and intimidation. Afterward, he tricks the atheist Kirilov into admitting everything, writing a suicide note, and shooting himself, while he himself escapes. Additionally, the author portrays another "possessed" figure, Nikolai Stavrogin, a morally bankrupt, licentious scoundrel who specializes in manipulating women's emotions, as well as the parents and mentors of these two "possessed" individuals—a caricatured representative of Western liberalism.