The Idiot
Book description
Translated by Constance Garnett, with an Introduction and Notes by Agnes Cardinal, Honorary Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature at the University of Kent.
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…
Why read it?
4 authors picked The Idiot as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
If you only read one book by Dostoevsky, this should be the one. The psychiatrist who directed the Mayo Clinic’s mental health division for years often had his patients read all of Dostoevsky’s works.
The Idiot is about a truly innocent and good man, Prince Myshkin, who is thrust into the highest levels of Russian aristocratic society. Although he understands that deception is essential to thrive in this world, he refuses to give up his guilelessness.
He is always as honest as he can be with everyone around him, and as kind as he can be, and as caring as…
From Clancy's list on teaching you how not to kill yourself.
Well, pretty much anything by this true philosopher is a source of wisdom and personal transformation.
Not only are his books deeply philosophical, they are also a kind of catalyst for your current state of emotional well-being. If all you see is doom and gloom, I will strongly recommend talking to your therapist.
The unexpected twist about Dostoyevski is that he was profoundly optimistic and kind in his way of handling his storylines.
From Kristina's list on personal growth and transformation.
I would read this book only for Prince Myshkin the so-called "Idiot", a holy fool, and Nastasya Filippovna, a complex, piteous, feisty, worshipped, orphaned, tormented, tragic woman of great beauty who was brought up to be a kept mistress. Aside from Nastasya Filippovna, the beauty of the book is reading how Myshkin navigates around his own sense of divided love, between Nastasya and Aglaya and how he contends with the greed and ambition of others. His thoughts on death, execution, infidelity, insanity, the profound depths of mentality, of dread and fear, are all presented in the unravelling of this tragic…
From Henry's list on psychological enquiry in alternative formats.
This grand novel has with Dostoevsky's goal of portraying “the completely good and beautiful human being” in the sense of a naïve compassion for other human beings no matter their character made a big impression on me and has inspired me for the protagonist of my novel-series Bridges to the World. In the novel, Prince Myshkin's empathy and love for people in his surroundings creates a moral dramatic mirror of the passions, desires, and egoism of worldly society, and brings chaos to the relations of its incarnations, the aggressive Ragózjin and the double-minded Nastaja. As in Shakespeare's Macbeth, love…
From Stig's list on conflict and love.
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