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The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them
The Possessed Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them
Author: Elif Batuman
If you're going to read just one book about conference planning, Isaac Babel, Leo Tolstoy, Boys' Leg contests, giant apes, Uzbek poetry, the life of the mind, and resignation of the soul -- seek no farther:  This is the book for you! — The Possessed draws on Elif Batuman's articles in The New Yorker, Harper&...  more », and n+1 to tell the true story of one woman's intellectual and sentimental education and her many strange encounters with fellow scholars devoted -- absurdly!  melancholically! beautifully! -- to the Russian classics.

Batuman's pieces for The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and the London Review of Books  have made her one of the most sought-after and admired writers of her generation, and its best traveling companion. In The Possessed we watch her investigate a possible murder at Tolstoy's ancestral estate. We go with her to Stanford, Switzerland, and St. Petersburg; retrace Pushkin's wanderings in the Caucasus; learn why Old Uzbek has one hundred different words for crying; and see an eighteenth-century ice palace reconstructed on the Neva.
ISBN-13: 9781921656644
ISBN-10: 1921656646
Publication Date: 4/27/2010
Pages: 296
Rating:
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 3

4 stars, based on 3 ratings
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

amrishpuri avatar reviewed The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them on
Helpful Score: 1
This book MIGHT make someone happy. I thought I'd love it just because of the title. The cover makes it look very inviting, too.
But after getting through the first chapter, I just couldn't stand it anymore.
I feel terrible saying this, but the author writes like an intellectual snob...
I hope somebody else will review it and write about how they felt when reading this. I hope someone else likes it. But I just hated it:(
Read All 1 Book Reviews of "The Possessed Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them"


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