One of the best books I've ever read

books:

	• The Idiot (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics) Fyodor Dostoevsky Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004 - 608 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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A Great Novel

Princy Myshkin is perceived by others around him as being an idiot, but I will leave it up to the reader to decide whether he really is one. Some characters perceive him to be the most trustworthy man they have ever meant, while others call him an intellectual and a democrat. Yet, most revert back to calling him an idiot.

The book is full of the basest characters, and only Myshkin can offer them a shot at redemption. He sees them for their true selves, good or bad, and loves them for who they are. Myshkin has been called a Russian Christ and is one of the most provocative characters that I have come accross in literature.

In addition to Dostoevsky's strong characterization, this book also includes the author's critique of capital punishment, the role of women in society, and the role of aristocracy. The book is both introspective and political, although not overly so. I found it to be a new favorite of mind, and I am sure it will stick with me for awhile. It is a very good novel.

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Disappointing

Dostoevsky disappointed me. After Crime and Punishment, I had expected another book that was deep, almost profound, and genuine in its portrayal of humanity and generally a great read - what we'd expect of an author as great as Dostoevsky. What I found instead sounded like the ramblings of someone uncertain of what he wanted to say.

Was this going to be a book about religion, about high society in Russia, about love? About all three? What was Dostoevsky trying to say? Perhaps I was disappointed because the book didn't seem `concentrated', there were so many unnecessary little incidents that distracted from the main storyline (if there was one), that the book lost its thrust.

But I mustn't dissuade you from reading this book. Compared to many other works of fiction, this would be a masterpiece. I must warn you however that if you have heard about Dostoevsky and want to see why there is such a fuss made over him, read something like Crime and Punishment or The Brothers Karamazov rather than this work.

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An Unintentional Mockery?

First, let me respond to the other review on this edition. It seems that many long works of the 19th century are "guilty" of the same thing--saying a lot more than necessary to make the point. Yes, The Idiot, like Les Miserable, like War and Peace, could have been reduced to 200 to 300 pages, even less, but that wasn't the style of the time. My recommendation in approaching these works, as with much we ever do, is to take the Zen approach: enjoy the process of life presented in the book without much attention to the goal. Once one reaches the goal, in the case finishing the book, the person is at once unfulfilled again, needing something else to read and intrigue the mind. So enjoy the present moment in the book, any book.

That being said, The Idiot is rather curious to me on one point. I don't know if this is part of Russian style, but why did Dostoevsky find it necessary, in virtually every case, to use full names, even when one person is addressing a close friend or family member. Also, why does virtually every person have 2 names, names which aren't even similar to each other? I highly recommend, if you want to keep the characers straight, that you keep a list in your book as characters show up as to what their dual names are. I mean, you will find one person addressed with their two different names in adjacent sentences, making it seem like two different people are referred to, but it's one person. It is for this one reason that I gave the work 4 stars. If it represents the historical formality and idiosyncresy of the time, then I give four stars instead of five for 19th-century Russian idiocy.

Finally, the point of the book. Who is the idiot here? It is clear that Myshkin, who is naive and having epilepsy, is the idiot. But his naivety is not weird, really. His naivety is actually compassion, a Christ-like attribute. And certainly, epilepsy is not a mood disorder or mental limitation, except maybe it was perceived that way at the time. The question is whether Dostoevsky actually perceived Myshkin as an idiot. I believe it is possible he did not; that is, the author may have been mocking the general population's definition of idiot. When I finished the book, and actually before finishing, I realized that while Myshkin is the idiot of the title, he is actually about the only sane person in the story. Virtually all the other characters act like idiots, morons, jerks, etc. It may be that Dostoevsky was mocking "normal" society. If he wasn't, he nonetheless did so, and quite effectively and satisfyingly.

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One of the best books I've ever read

Please do not pay attention to the previous reviews. This book is beautiful in every way.

Prince Lyov Nikolayevich Myshkin is a man who suffers from epilepsy, for which he spent three years in a Swiss sanatarium, where they tried to cure his "idiocy." But Myshkin is anything but an idiot. Myshkin contrasts the society all around him. He is a compassionate, friendly person, who never holds grudges and loves everyone. He is supposed to represent a Christ-like figure, and in my mind, his innocence, his unfailing naivety and kindness, truly make him one. When he is slapped in the face at one point, he only says "you will regret this later." Myshkin's "friends" though, and basically everyone in the book, are corrupt, vain, and mean. Myshkin is too good of a person for this world, and so he is not accepted, and is called an idiot.

The only thing that confused me for a while was that every character seems to have two names. But actually they don't, it's just how they are being referred to in the book at different times. I have a friend who moved here from Russia 2 years ago, and i asked her about it. Take Myshkin's name, for example. Lyov Nikolayevich Myshkin. Lyov is almost never used, since Russians rarely refer to each other by first name only. Nikolayevich Myshkin is a formal way of addressing someone, while Myshkin is the standard name that most people call him. Calling someone only by their patronymic, or middle name, means that they are a very intimate friend. I hope that helped anyone who is reading or plans to read this book, because I was very confused before I knew this.

Anyway, this book is one you don't want to miss out on. I recommend it to anyone and everyone!

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The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences?biographical, historical, and literary?to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. Just two years after completing Crime and Punishment, which explored the mind of a murderer, Dostoevsky produced another masterpiece, The Idiot. This time the author portrays a truly beautiful soul?a character he found difficult to bring to life because, as he wrote, ?beauty is the ideal, and neither my country, nor civilized Europe, know what that ideal of beauty is.? The result was one of Dostoevsky?s greatest characters?Prince Myshkin, a saintly, Christ-like, yet deeply human figure.

The story begins when Myshkin arrives on Russian soil after a stay in a Swiss sanatorium. Scorned by St. Petersburg society as an idiot for his generosity and innocence, the prince finds himself at the center of a struggle between a rich, kept woman and a beautiful, virtuous girl, who both hope to win his affection. Unfortunately, Myshkin?s very goodness seems to bring disaster to everyone he meets. The shocking denouement tragically reveals how, in a world obsessed with money, power, and sexual conquest, a sanatorium is the only place for a saint. Joseph Frank is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at Princeton University and Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature and Slavic Languages and Literature at Stanford University. He is the author of a five-volume study of Dostoevsky?s life and work. The first four volumes received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, two Christian Gauss Awards, two James Russell Lowell Awards of the Modern Language Association, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and other honors. Frank is also the author of Through the Russian Prism: Essays on Literature and Culture, The Widening Gyre, and The Idea of Spatial Form. He also wrote the introduction to the Barnes & Noble Classics edition of Dostoevsky?s The House of the Dead and Poor Folk.

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