{"product_id":"the-possessed-a-play-in-three-parts-9798217008193","title":"The Possessed: A Play in Three Parts","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe Nobel Prize-winning author here adapts Dostoyevsky's masterpiece for the stage--a rousing invective against nihilism that brings together two of the great literary minds of the last two centuries\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen Albert Camus first read Dostoyevsky as a twenty-year-old philosophy student, it was a \"soul-shaking experience.\" \u003ci\u003eThe Possessed\u003c\/i\u003e, in particular, had a profound effect on the young writer and thinker, who found in the novel an echo of his own disdain for the philosophy of nihilism and its potentially disastrous effects. \"In many ways,\" he writes in the foreword to the play, \"I can claim that I grew up on it and took sustenance from it. For almost twenty years, in any event, I have visualized its characters on the stage.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTo complete this labor of love, Camus drew on hundreds of pages from Dostoyevsky's \u003ci\u003eThe Notebooks for The Possessed\u003c\/i\u003e, which document the Russian master's torturous writing process, taking care all the while to preserve the \"thread of suffering and affection that makes Dostoyevsky's universe so close to each of us.\" As a result, he breathed new life into the enigmatic Stavrogin, the gentle Shatov, and the God-haunted Kirilov, bringing us face to face with Dostoyevsky's creations. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen it was finally performed, in 1959--with Camus himself directing--the play ran to four hours long and was an artistic and technical triumph, featuring thirty-three actors and seven sets. The last finished work before Camus's death, \u003ci\u003eThe Possessed \u003c\/i\u003estands as an enduring literary statement about human existence in which the conscience of the twentieth century meets and defines in contemporary terms the conscience of the nineteenth century.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Albert Camus\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Vintage\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/21\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 240\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.51lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.25w x 0.72d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798217008193\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBorn in Algeria in 1913, \u003cb\u003eALBERT CAMUS\u003c\/b\u003e published \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger--\u003c\/i\u003enow one of the most widely read novels of this century--in 1942. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957. On January 4, 1960, he was killed in a car accident.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"booksdeli.com","offers":[{"title":"Albert Camus \/ Paperback \/ English","offer_id":47876616192157,"sku":"9798217008193","price":20.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0619\/5648\/9373\/files\/img_69d417c7-e891-4ff9-8fc5-a7ef37e391cd.jpg?v=1777383299","url":"https:\/\/booksdeli.com\/products\/the-possessed-a-play-in-three-parts-9798217008193","provider":"booksdeli.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}