The Idiot
Frederick Whishaw, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Readers rate it 4.0 (468 on Hardcover)
656 pages · Released Jul 8, 2003 · Vintage
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The Idiot parent’s guide: what’s inside
LGBTQ+ themes
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A note for parents
Dostoevsky's *The Idiot* is a sophisticated 19th-century philosophical novel exploring morality, faith, and human nature through the collision of an idealistic protagonist with corrupt society. While not graphically violent, it contains serious psychological disturbance, blackmail, betrayal, and murder—themes demanding maturity to process. The novel rewards patient, reflective readers interested in character psychology and Russian literature, but its density, length, and moral complexity make it best suited to older teens and adults.
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From the publisher
Inspired by an image of Christ's suffering, Fyodor Dostoyevsky set out to portray "a truly beautiful soul" colliding with the brutal reality of contemporary society. Returning to St. Petersburg from a Swiss sanatorium, the gentle and naive Prince Myshkin—known as "the idiot"—pays a visit to his distant relative General... Inspired by an image of Christ's suffering, Fyodor Dostoyevsky set out to portray "a truly beautiful soul" colliding with the brutal reality of contemporary society. Returning to St. Petersburg from a Swiss sanatorium, the gentle and naive Prince Myshkin—known as "the idiot"—pays a visit to his distant relative General Yepanchin and proceeds to charm the General and his circle. But after becoming infatuated with the beautiful Nastasya Filippovna, Myshkin finds himself caught up in a love triangle and drawn into a web of blackmail, betrayal, and, ultimately, murder. This new translation by David McDuff is sensitive to the shifting registers of the original Russian, capturing the nervous, elliptic flow of the narrative for a new generation of readers.
Shelved under
- Notebooks, sketchbooks
- Fiction, general
- Russia in fiction
- Fiction
- Social conditions
- Social life and customs
- Russian fiction
- Translations into English
- Russia
- Classic Literature
- Continental european fiction (fictional works by one author)
- Television adaptations
Books in The Idiot (2 Volumes)
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ISBN 9780375702242 · Vintage