Fyodor Dostoevsky

Returning to St Petersburg from a Swiss sanatorium, the gentle and naive epileptic Prince Myshkin - pays a visit to his distant relative General Yepanchin and proceeds to charm the General, his wife, and his three daughters. But his life is thrown into turmoil when he chances on a photograph of the beautiful Nastasya Filippovna.

The Idiot 

The dynamic between Rogozhin and Myshkin is my favorite aspect of the book. They need each other, but are perpetually torn apart. If only they could remain side by side; their opposing personalities might have allowed them to overcome their crises. The prince, incapable of rejecting even the most malevolent, and Rogozhin, unable to resist evil despite his better intentions, form a tragic pair. It’s heartbreaking to witness their mutual descent into ruin. And perhaps the book aims to frustrate its readers, as it continually makes it challenging to relate to Prince Myshkin. His inherently kind nature, only to emerge as the true “idiot” of his own story, is one of the most compelling symbols I’ve ever come across. His thoughts and actions are in constant conflict, shifting unpredictably through each stage of his life. Dostoevsky’s genius lies in his ability to craft a character who is both exasperating and deeply compassionate, embodying contradictions in the most human way possible. The ultimate moral story here is as simple as it is bitter: 

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The dynamic between Rogozhin and Myshkin is my favorite aspect of the book. They need each other, but are perpetually torn apart. If only they could remain side by side; their opposing personalities might have allowed them to overcome their crises. The prince, incapable of rejecting even the most malevolent, and Rogozhin, unable to resist evil despite his better intentions, form a tragic pair. It’s heartbreaking to witness their mutual descent into ruin. And perhaps the book aims to frustrate its readers, as it continually makes it challenging to relate to Prince Myshkin. His inherently kind nature, only to emerge as the true “idiot” of his own story, is one of the most compelling symbols I’ve ever come across. His thoughts and actions are in constant conflict, shifting unpredictably through each stage of his life. Dostoevsky’s genius lies in his ability to craft a character who is both exasperating and deeply compassionate, embodying contradictions in the most human way possible. The ultimate moral story here is as simple as it is bitter: don’t be an idiot.

Hooman Rostami

The book grow on me as time went by. Nice story overall, not the best Dostoevsky works for sure, but it is an interesting one. It’s full of psychological analyses, and it’s a complete perfection in part 4, chapter 9. Part 4, chapter 4 is the funniest chapter I have read by D. I’d recommend the book just for that! The book definitely finishes strong unlike Karamazov Brothers!

The Idiot

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