The Idiot

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Richard Pevear, Feodor Dostoevski, Larissa Volokhonsky)

I would place this book on the same level as Crime and Punishment, but neither of those are equal...more

I would place this book on the same level as Crime and Punishment, but neither of those are equal to The Brothers Karamazov, which can be argued (and plausibly too) as the greatest work of fiction ever written. But this is not a knock on this book, because even the second best from Dostoyevsky is world-class in its own right. I find that all the trifecta of Dostoyevsky's major works share common themes, such as suicide, redemption through suffering, faith and doubt, etc, and characters who inhabit those themes. For example, the Idiot and Crimes and Punishment both feature two protagonist, one male and one female, who represent Christian love and suffering. There is also a struggle between nihilism and faith in both novels. Though they might be thematically similar, the setting is vastly different. Not different physically, since both take place in St. Petersburg, but socially, since Crimes and Punishment takes place in squalor while The Idiot takes place in middle and upper-society milieus. The Idiot is almost Victorian in structure, since most major plot advancements occur within a parlor-like setting in which exposition most occurs through dialogue between characters. The plot is also driven superficially by courtship and the prospect of marriage, and the characters are almost all middle and upper-class types. But perhaps the genius of the book lies within the fact that Dostoyevsky was able to pack a lot of rich themes into this somewhat bland setting, and he was able to create incredible drama and tension within the limited confines of a Victorian novel. Comparably speaking, Crime and Punishment featured a much quicker plot, with a lot more room to create moments of suspense and fear. It's incredible to me how Dostoyevsky is able to do so much with so little, because, to be honest, The Idiot is mostly a series of dialogues between characters as they sit around in parlors in a soiree. But neither The Idiot or Crime and Punishment can approach the level of excellence that is The Brothers Karamazov, which to me is really a novel about everything.    hide

In this novel, Dostoevsky attempts to portray what he calls "a truly beautiful soul" after his...more

In this novel, Dostoevsky attempts to portray what he calls "a truly beautiful soul" after his depiction of the opposite in Crime and Punishment. The protagonist, Prince Lev Nikolaich Myshkin, is a poor man (with some obscure line of nobility) given to seizures, altruistic to an astonishing degree, and yet somewhat socially naive. The "prince" title sticks throughout the work rather ironically, as Myshkin spends most of the book in rather compromising and/or unflattering situations. (Everyone calls him "prince".) On his return to Russia from a medical stay in Switzerland, the hapless prince becomes entangled in the most complicated struggles for money, status, and sexual conquest after he meets his new friends the Epanchins and others. Throughout he struggles to reconcile his difficult social interactions, characterized by the subterfuge and deviousness of others, with his own Christ-like innocence. He's at once admired and ridiculed by friends and those who hate him alike The latter include some truly onerous characters.....Ippolit, Lebedev, Ferdyshchenko, and especially Rogozhin. This last one will stay with me forever...the creepiest character I have ever come across in a book. The way Dostoevsky portrayed his eyes gleaming out from the crowds in the city during the dreary walks of the epilleptic prince. Or take the way the prince perceived, in states between delirium and reality, how Rogozhin would murder him....gave me the shivers. Or Rogozhin's room...with it's oddly distorted paintings of Christian scenes amidst dreary furniture...and his dark eyes glinting the whole time. The wild and somewhat demented Rogozhin became a ghost to haunt him. The prince's love for two women, who are themselves caught up in the injustices of society, form the culmination of the story. Ultimately the prince's desire to love one on the account of romantic attraction and the other for gracious pity at all she had suffered lead to his final ruin. A man so full of love and mercy, so rich in concern for the feelings of others, so dressed in humility, so mindless of his own pride as Prince Myshkin was......such a man cannot but succumb to the wiles of others, the brutal ways of our world. Though he's often ridiculed as "an idiot" by all in the novel, it is obvious that Dostoevsky loved this character greatly. I do too. And despite the fact that this novel failed where The Brothers Karamazov succeeded -- in finding a way to make such a Christ-like characters triumph in society rather than be subsumed within its ills--, and despite the fact that the book was often a bit unwieldy and very occasionally verbose, the story nonetheless is effective at affirming the Christian character. Despite the burden and hurt of constant ridicule, and despite his final sad fate, the prince touched the lives of so many characters in this book through acts of kindness. So many times the hateful and mistrusting personages became stupefied (and changed a bit) through the power of grace and compassion. It is those moments that make The Idiot so special. It made a powerful impression on me with its emotional and intellectual breadth. WHOLEHEARTEDLY recommended!   hide

Dostoevsky's 'The idiot' takes us back to his notion of the perfect human being. Following the...more

Dostoevsky's 'The idiot' takes us back to his notion of the perfect human being. Following the renunciation of atheism, Dosteovsky chose the path of Christian existentialism, with the foretelling that the former path would lead to self-destruction and the downfall of man.Each of the characters is a representation of ideas, all firmly placed within human skin. The main character, the 'idiot' is prince myshkin. The man possessed of pure kindness and compassion towards others is catapulted towards the elites within Russian society following his time in Scandinavia for the treatment of his famous condition of epilepsy.He becomes weaved into various storylines of the other characters, soon to be consumed by society's intolerance of this 'idiot'. More to say on this one later    hide

This novel could have been renamed 'Bitchfights of the Russian Bourgeoisie" and I would not have...more

This novel could have been renamed 'Bitchfights of the Russian Bourgeoisie" and I would not have noticed the difference. It is so melodramatic, so soap-operatic, so long and so wordy, so chock full of irrelevant characters and incidents. My mind wandered so often, especially in the beginning chapters. Nevertheless there are some really profound touches in this book, and Dostoyoevsky brings in some startling insights into the human condition. His description of mediocrity in people had me squirming in discomfort. The second half of the book starts to get a whole lot more interesting, with some very trippy bits in there I can only assume was written soon before or after Dostoyevsky's fits. [Take for example the description of Ippolit's dream of the scorpion/ bug, which was extremely entertaining.] A long, often tedious read that can be interesting and thought-provoking at times, but must be embarked on with a great reserve of mental energy and intellectual stoicism.   hide

It is about this guy in an agnostic and humanistic society and the book shows the differences...more

It is about this guy in an agnostic and humanistic society and the book shows the differences between his reactions to the thoughts of the other many characters in the book with different certain situations that happen amoungst the main character and others. He is called an "IDIOT" because his reactions, attitude, and thoughts are different from the norm of those in the book. The main character Myshkin, is paralled to Christ, and this was the goal of the author, to show a character who was almost the perfect man though none is but Christ because Christ is God , as a man, not just a man.    hide