The Possessed. by DOSTOEVSKY, Fyodor - 1913: A Novel in Three Parts. From the Russian by Constance Garnett.

London: William Heinemann,, 1913. Not only one of the masterpieces of world literature... but a work of immediate relevance to our times" - Camus First edition in English, first impression. The Possessed, also known as "Demons", or "The Devils", was first published in serial form in The Russian Messenger between 1871 and 1872, and in book form in 1872 as Bésy.
Loosely based on sensational press reports of a Moscow student's murder by fellow revolutionists, this classic of Russian literature portrays the possessive power of Nihilism. Albert Camus, who published a stage adaptation of the novel in 1959, praised the work: "I rate Les Possédés with three or four works, like The Odyssey, War and Peace, Don Quixote and Shakespearian theatre, which crown the enormous range of human creativity... [Dostoevsky is] the person who lived and expressed most profoundly our historical destiny... the writer who, long before Nietzsche, understood contemporary nihilism, defined it, predicted its horrendous consequences and attempted to show pathways out of it" (quoted in Davison, p. 137). Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered and tooled in gilt within gilt borders, roundel on front cover in blind, publisher's device on rear cover in blind, lower edge untrimmed. Neat ownership signature on front pastedown of one MacKinnon. Spine sunned, slight wear to spine ends and lower corners, corners and rear joint rubbed, covers and top edge lightly soiled, faint foxing and offsetting to endpapers, rear inner hinge just starting else binding firm. A very good copy, internally very fresh and clean. Line, Bibliography of Russian Literature in English Translation to 1945, p. 42. Ray Davison, Camus: The Challenge of Dostoevsky, 2001.