The Idiot

The 26-year-old Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin returns to Russia after spending several years at a Swiss sanatorium. Scorned by the society of Saint Petersburg for his trusting nature and naiveté, he finds himself at the center of a struggle between a beautiful kept woman and a virtuous and pretty young girl, both of whom win his affection. Unfortunately, Myshkin's very goodness precipitates disaster, leaving the impression that, in a world obsessed with money, power, and sexual conquest, a sanatorium may be the only place for a saint. THE IDIOT is possibly the only novel by Dostoevsky which does not merely dwell on the darkness but wrenches the reader's heart in an emotional and uplifting catharsis. A passionate masterpiece by one of Russia's classical masters of the intense psychological novel.