Product Description

Revealing Dostoevsky's acute artistic sense and penetrating psychological insight, this new translation is meticulously faithful to the original.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3195 in Books
• Published on: 1996-12-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 592 pages

Synopsis
Prince Myshkin returns to Russia from an asylum in Switzerland. As he becomes embroiled in the frantic amatory and financial intrigues which centre around a cast of brilliantly realised characters and which ultimately lead to tragedy, he emerges as a unique combination of the Christian ideal of perfection and Dostoevsky's own views, afflictions and manners. His serene selflessness is contrasted with the worldly qualities of every other character in the novel. Dostoevsky supplies a harsh indictment of the Russian ruling class of his day who have created a world which cannot accomodate the goodness of this idiot.

Customer Reviews

Possibly the best book I have read (so far)
This is the first 19th century "classic" that I have read, and rather naively I expected it to be long and boring. But I couldn't have been more wrong; I found Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" to be a beautiful book, that I was unable to put down. When I should have been studying I was reading this religiously, enthralled by its wide range of brilliant characters (but then characterization is one of Dostoevsky's strong points). It's beautiful, tragic, and philosophically brilliant. And it has Prince Myshkin, one of the most memorable (and likable) characters in literature. Read it!

with Whatmark?
I was sorely disappointed to find no ornate, no even slightly decorative piece of card to help me mark this book. To charge however much more advertising 'with Bookmark' (a capital 'B', take note) only to give the standard line of linen attached to the book is a little scandalous, Ms. Amazon, a little.
(Don't all the Everyman's Library Hardcover titles have a bookmark within them?)
Am I the only one to have not recieved this special 'Idiot Bookmark', or am I simply the Idiot in this situation. The book is lovely but where's the mark!? [the rating is in no way associated with the alleged Bookmark scandal]

Issues with the Wordsworth translation...
...took the edge off of this book for me. Please, if you're thinking of reading it, don't buy the Wordsworth even if it is much cheaper. The translation is very strained and produces some quite mangled sentences. Particularly with respect to pronouns, I found: sentences like "He said such-and-such to him" frequently left me puzzled as to exactly who was being addressed and by whom. And certain cultural references that I presume would have been obvious to a 19th-century Russian were left unexplained. The lack of any kind of notes or list of characters was also missed.

The blurb and the other reviews suffice to tell what the story is about so I will just add that this is still a very interesting read which could be as good as Crime and Punishment depending on the translation. For a non-Russian the exotic Russian names and particularly the use of patronymics and diminutives adds a little to the confusion and may cause the reader to conflate several characters for quite a while, but I found that after a couple of hundred pages I was more comfortable with this. I was less comfortable with the fiery Russian temperament of the characters - particularly Aglaia and Lizaveta Prokofyevna - which frequently meant that they hated and loved someone...and then hated and loved them again...all in the space of one paragraph. It's often hard to tell who is mad and who is sane. They all seem a little mad. Still, it is certainly very intriguing and interesting and I recommend it.