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| The Idiot (Everyman's Library Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: F.m. Dostoevsky
Creators: Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky
Publisher: Everyman's Library
Category: Book
List Price: £12.99
Buy Used: £5.49
You Save: £7.50 (58%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 182854
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 672
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.1 x 1.6
ISBN: 1857152549
EAN: 9781857152548
ASIN: 1857152549
Publication Date: April 25, 2002
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Title page may be torn or missing. In stock - Sent fast from British booksellers.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Will The Real Idiot Stand Up July 1, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The skimpy plot is as follows: Prince Myshkin returns to Russia after several years of treatment in Switzerland for epilepsy. He immediately falls in with several shady characters, some persons on the periphery of "society" and some distant family relations. In the middle of all this he proceeds to fall in love with two willful but beautiful women who throughout the book take turns to humiliate him. So this is not a love story.
The prince is called an "idiot" because he's not only gullible and naive but seemingly eternally so. He believes the best of everyone even when time after time they take him for a ride. This is so maddingly frustrating because this goody-two-shoes learns zero common sense after 600 pages. If the Prince is supposed to be christ-like at least Jesus went bananas with the moneychangers at the temple. The prince is beatific throughout. At one point like in similar goody goody stories by Dickens the prince inherits a fortune from some unknown person. Ridiculous deux ex machina. But at least Dickens usually has clear moral messages. The Idiot does not.
There's nil character development. We do not really know why the prince fell in love with these women or why they torment him so. People love hate curse bless blow hot cold appear disappear. And so the story grinds on. Many readers have criticised the confusing use of patronymics or the dimunitive for instance Gavrila Ardalionovich is also called Ganya or Ganechka. So what. We who have come to russian literature must learn to accept how russians speak and and maybe even love it. Sadly one can't say the same for any character in this tome. I could not find a single one to understand or to love or hate.
There are many great long books (the author's Brothers Karamazov being one) but this is not one of them. The Idiot should have been cut in half. The plot has no direction and brilliant flashes like the prince's account of the last moments of a condemned man heading for the guillotine or the discourse on happiness for non-geniuses at the beginning of part three are few and far between. A fellow passenger on a flight from Berlin to London remarked how intense I was engrossed and that The Idiot is one of her favorite books. I smiled politely but in the end I was the one who felt like an idiot for persevering to the end.
Incidentally the edition I read was the Granta Books one but the translators are the same as the Everyman's edition.
 A revealing classic December 29, 2006
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
The Idiot is one of the finest novels in history, perhaps the finest. In this novel, the enigma that is often referred to as "THE RUSSIAN SOUL" is variously dissected through the different characters and more so by the hero of the story Prince Myshkin. In its simplest explanation, it is a soul with good intentions but faulty in executing the intentions. It is a soul in conflict, driven by the zest for life and a search of its meaning. Certainly the most Christian of Dostoyevsky's novels, THE IDIOT portrays how disastrous a good life can be. Rich in characters, this classic centers mostly on the good Prince Myshkin, a recovering epileptic with a rich soul who is easily perceived as an 'idiot' by the casual observer who focuses on his childlike manners especially in expressing himself and his naivety in dealing with people. But then a closer look reveals that his manners are the reflections of his honest soul, the wealth of his big heart and the broadness of his mind.
And only in deeper engagements does it become evident that Myshkin however has superior understanding and expression, which makes him modest and intelligent rather than stupid. His simple, honest and decent life is succinctly conveyed in his interactions, generating both love and resentment. The saintly Myshkin however struggles to deal with a materialistic world which has no place for the virtuous, and to reconcile his passionate and compassionate love for two women. But the love of the women corrupt and drives men out of their minds. Nastasia Filipovna whom Myshkin has compassionate love for is a tormented soul that can only love Christ and in Myshkin she found that Christ-like figure. Her rival Aglia has Myshkin's heart but failed to understand Myshkin's serene love for her and abandons him to the destructive love of Nastasia.
This is great intellectual work that we should to take seriously in general, a book to read with a serious mindset. Then you will understand the unique nature of Russia which our western minds have difficulties to comprehend. This strange land called Russia that has a bigger soul than any other is explored here in this story in a way that only Dostoyevsky unveils. Read it and you will finish it enriched. The Idiot is a thoroughly enjoyable novel of ideas that explores the nature of man and society and gives you a better idea of man and his actions. You shouldn't find it strange that the characters are philosophical, impulsive, introspective, energetic, colorful, and extreme in their passions. That is Russia, a land of extremes. This book is likely to impact you. It is one of the few of our times. I highly recommend it along with THE UNION MOUJIK.Also recommended: THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV,THE USURPER AND OTHER STORIES, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
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