{"product_id":"the-possessed-a-play-in-three-parts-paperback","title":"The Possessed: A Play in Three Parts - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eAlbert Camus\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eAdam Gopnik\u003c\/b\u003e (Introduction by), \u003cb\u003eJustin O'Brien\u003c\/b\u003e (Translator)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\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 \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen Albert Camus first read Dostoevsky as a twenty-year-old philosophy student, it was, he said, a \"soul-shaking experience.\" \u003ci\u003eThe Possessed\u003c\/i\u003e, with its disdain for nihilism, became a lifelong touchstone; \"for almost twenty years,\" he writes in the foreword to this adapta­tion, \"I have visualized its characters on the stage.\" The enigmatic Stavrogin, the gentle Shatov, and the God-haunted Kirilov are here reinvigorated by Camus's own moral conviction. Drawing on hundreds of pages from Dostoevsky's notebooks, he sought to preserve the \"thread of suffering and affection that makes Dosto­evsky's universe so close to each of us.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe last finished work before Camus's death, \u003ci\u003eThe Possessed \u003c\/i\u003epremiered in 1959--with Camus himself directing. The play ran for four hours, with thirty-three actors and seven sets, and was an artistic and techni­cal triumph. More than six decades later, its themes of political violence and ideological extremism are no less potent. As Adam Gopnik concludes in a new introduc­tion: \"A play written as a summation of the madness of the middle of the twentieth century, \u003ci\u003eThe Possessed \u003c\/i\u003eremains a warning to the first quarter of our own.\"\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 240\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.72 x 8 x 5.25 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e April 21, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48409074401529,"sku":"9798217008193","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0789\/2782\/3097\/files\/sCKEtGOktH9798217008193.webp?v=1779018920","url":"https:\/\/bookscloud.io\/products\/the-possessed-a-play-in-three-parts-paperback","provider":"BooksCloud Book Dropshipping","version":"1.0","type":"link"}