Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Idiot (Pevear & Volokhonsky, trans.)

Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Idiot (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002). Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.

ISBN: 9780375702242 | 656 pages | ePUB


After his great portrayal of a guilty man in Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) set out in THE IDIOT to portray a man of pure innocence and idealism. The twenty-six-year-old Prince Myshkin, following a stay of several years in a Swiss sanatorium, returns to Russia to collect an inheritance and "be among people." Even before he reaches home he meets the dark Rogozhin, a rich merchant’s son whose obsession with the beautiful Nastasya Filippovna eventually draws all three of them into a tragic denouement. In Petersburg the prince finds himself a stranger in a society obsessed with money, power, and manipulation. Scandal escalates to murder as Dostoevsky traces the surprising effect of this "positively beautiful man" on the people around him, leading to a final scene that is one of the most powerful in all of world literature. THE IDIOT is both a powerful indictment of that society and a rich and gripping masterpiece.


Reviews

"Their trademark style fresh, crisp and faithful to the original (bumps and blemishes included) brings the story of nave, truth-telling Prince Myshkin to new life. As is true of their other translations of Dostoevsky, this will likely be the definitive edition for years to come." -- Publishers Weekly

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For a collection of more novels and short stories by Dostoevsky, see here.