In The Idiot, a saintly man, Prince Myshkin, is thrust into the heart of a society more concerned with wealth, power, and sexual conquest than the ideals of Christianity. Myshkin soon
finds himself at the center of a violent love triangle in which a notorious woman and a beautiful young girl become rivals for his affections. Extortion, scandal, and murder follow, testing the
wreckage left by human misery to find “man in man.”
The Idiot is a quintessentially Russian novel, one that penetrates the complex psyche of the Russian people. “They call me a psychologist,” wrote Dostoevsky. “That is not true. I’m only a
realist in the higher sense; that is, I portray all the depths of the human soul.”
Editorial Reviews
Editorial Reviews
“My intention is to portray a really beautiful soul.” —Dostoevsky
“Nothing is outside Dostoevsky’s province…Out of Shakespeare there is no more exciting reading.” —Virginia Woolf
“I think The Idiot to be a masterpiece…a fact of world literature just as important as the densely dramatic Brothers Karamazov or the brilliantly subtle and terrifying Devils.” —A.S. Byatt
“Rivals any modern soap opera for complexity.”
—Vancover Sun
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821–1881) was a Russian novelist, journalist, and short-story writer whose psychological penetration into the darkest recesses of the human
heart had a profound and universal influence on the twentieth-century novel. He was born in Moscow, the son of a surgeon. Leaving the study of engineering for literature, he published Poor
Folk in 1846. As a member of revolutionary circles in St. Petersburg, he was condemned to death in 1849. A last-minute reprieve sent him to Siberia for hard labor. Returning to St. Petersburg
in 1859, he worked as a journalist and completed his masterpiece, Crime and Punishment, as well as other works, including The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov.
DRM (Digital Rights Management) is a copyright protection for digital media. While much of Blackstone Library’s content is DRM free, and allows for usage across platforms, select products on Blackstone Library are required by publishers to have DRM protected files. These products will be playable exclusively on the BlackstoneLibrary.com apps, available for iOS and Android devices.
To listen to this title you will need our latest app
1614309616
1569533170
We use cookies to improve our website and give you the best service possible. By using our website, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn more here.