The Possessed
Douban
Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them
Elif Batuman
Overview
Roaming from Tashkent to San Francisco, this is the true story of one budding writer's strange encounters with the fanatics who are devoted - absurdly! melancholically! ecstatically! - to the Russian classics. Combining fresh readings of the great Russians from Gogol to Goncharov with the sad and funny stories of the lives they continue to influence, The Possessed introduces a brilliant and distinctive new voice: comic, humane, charming, poignant and completely, and unpretentiously, full of an infectious love for literature.
contents
CONTENTS
Introduction
Babel in California
Summer in Samarkand
Who Killed Tolstoy?
Summer in Samarkand (continued)
The House of Ice
Summer in Samarkand (continued)
The Possessed
A Note on Translations
Literary Works Cited
Works Consulted
