The Possessed by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

First published in 1871-2, this third of Dostoevsky's five major novels is at once a powerful political tract and a profound study of atheism, depicting the disarray which follows the appearance of a band of modish radicals in a small provincial town. The novel is full of buffoonery and grotesque comedy, and the plot is loosely based on the details of a notorious case of political murder.