The Possessed

Book cover of The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them

Book description

The true story of one woman's intellectual and sentimental education and her strange encounters with others devoted - absurdly, melancholically, ecstatically - to the Russian classics

Roaming from Tashkent to San Francisco, this is the true story of one budding writer's strange encounters with the fanatics who are devoted -…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Possessed as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Katharine Smyth

Author

This is a compilation of essays about Batuman’s experience of studying Russian literature at Stanford. Wondering about “possible methods for bringing one’s life closer to one’s favorite books,” Batuman traces the literal and figurative path of writers such as Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Babel, finding answers in their life and work while at the same time exploring their influence upon a motley group of Slavic scholars and readers.

From Katharine's list on about books (and the authors who write them).