Overview

The Possessed draws on Elif Batuman's articles in the New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and n+1 to tell the true story of one woman's intellectual and sentimental education and her many strange encounters with scholars devoted to classic Russian writers. In a series of intertwined essays about her life—and other people's lives—in the world of Russian literature and scholarship, Batuman has written a funny, smart and self-deprecating book about Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy and Chekhov and the academics who worship them. It is full of stories of ice palaces and giant apes, conference disasters and excursions into Uzbek poetry; but there is also wisdom, and deep appreciation of the great Russian novels. Elif Batuman is a true original.

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9781921656644

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'Hilarious and remarkable...Rich in historic detail about Russian authors and literature and thoughtfully constructed, each essay is an amalgam of critical analysis, cultural criticism, and serious contemplation of big ideas like that of identity, intellectual legacy, and authorship.' * Literary Hub * 'In this delectable collection of essays, [Batuman] describes her travels to such perplexing locales as Tolstoy's former estate, Uzbekistan, a monastery on an Adriatic island, and graduate school. Hers is a lifelong quest for the grandiose, the melancholic, and-crucially-the absurd.' * Slate *

Praise for The Possessed In her comic, poignant, beguiling book, Batuman succeeds marvelously in illuminating her version of love. --Reese Kwon, Virginia Quarterly Review At every step along the way, Batuman's observations are wonderfully vivid. --Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune Odd and oddly profound . . . Among the charms of Ms. Batuman's prose is her fond, funny way of describing the people around her . . . Perhaps Ms. Batuman's best quality as a writer though--beyond her calm, lapidary prose--is the winsome and infectious delight she feels in the presence of literary genius and beauty. She's the kind of reader who sends you back to your bookshelves with a sublime buzz in your head. You want to feel what she's feeling. --Dwight Garner, The New York Times Book Review It's not surprising that some people never get over these books, and Batuman, for her part, goes to get a Ph.D. in Russian literature. Meanwhile, she travels through a country just poignant and absurd enough to showcase her capacious sense of humor (which has room for Isaac Babel, romantic mishaps, and missing luggage) . . . The main attraction is Elif Batuman herself. --Benjamin Moser, Harper's Magazine Hilarious, wide-ranging, erudite, and memorable, The Possessed is a sui generis feast for the mind and the fancy, ants and all. And, unlikely though this may sound, by the time you've reached the end, you just may wish that you, like the author, had fallen down the rabbit hole of comp lit grad school. Batuman's exaltations of Russian literature could have ended up in scholarly treatises gathering dust in university stacks. Instead, she has made her subject glow with the energy of the enigma that drew her to it in the first place. --Liesel Schillinger, The New York Times Book Revi ew A hugely entertaining mix of scholarly spelunking . . . and subtle personal revelation . . . Batuman, a gifted and almost painfully funny raconteur, enco

Author Information

Elif Batuman was born in New York City and grew up in New Jersey. She now lives in San Francisco. Her articles have appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine and the literary journal n+1. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundaton Writers’ Award and teaches at Stanford University.

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