The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. Read this book online for free on HackerNoon!

Little by little Stepan Trofimovitch began to call her a prosaic woman, or more jestingly, “My prosaic friend.”

“A student or professor, they all come from the university just the same. You only want to argue. But the Swiss one had moustaches and a beard.”

“I … I … thought that was the proper way,” she faltered, gazing open-eyed at Varvara Petrovna. “Liza called you that.”

“Oh, not a doubt of it,” I cried, pricking up my ears. “It was a got-up thing and it was too transparent, and so badly acted.”

“I’ve had a change of luck. I gave up books and bells and church-going because I’d a life sentence, so that I had a very long time to finish my term.”

“Negotiations are over. I beg you to listen to the signal!” Kirillov shouted at the top of his voice. “One! Two! Three!”

All scandal and gossip, all the petty tittle-tattle was thrown into the background, another significance had been detected.

Among the ladies especially a sort of frivolity was conspicuous, and it could not be said to be a gradual growth.

Manifestoes are a trivial matter too, and to my thinking not worth troubling about.

I believe that all these people had come together in the agreeable expectation of hearing something particularly interesting, and had notice of it beforehand.

The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. IVAN THE TSAREVITCH

I found him in a surprising condition: upset and in great agitation, but at the same time unmistakably triumphant.

“Curse the expression,” he squealed, at once catching her smile

It is remarkable that the committee, and even the most practical people in it, attached enormous consequence to this reading.

In spite of his “excitement,” he spoke smoothly, deliberately, with weight, obviously trying to be impressive.

“‘Calendars always tell lies,’” he observed with a polite smile, but, a little ashamed; he made haste to add: “It’s dull to live by the calendar, Liza.”

The simple disorderliness in which they had so zealously and systematically taken part had ended in a way they had not expected.

“If you are a teacher, what are you going to Hatovo for? Maybe you are going on farther.”

At the inquest our doctors absolutely and emphatically rejected all idea of insanity.