Completed in 1868, The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, is a novel about a "positively beautiful individual." This is what Dostoevsky set out to create in the character of Prince Myshkin, an idiot, so-called because he is such an innocent and kind person that he plays the fool within this Russian society full of liars, drunks, cheats, and murderers.Myshkin, like Dostoevsky himself, is epileptic. His epileptic fits are preceded by moments of enlightenment/clarity, in which Myshkin is ultra-receptive to the beauty of the world. In Prince Myshkin, it has been said, Dostoevsky was trying to create a new "Russian Christ." In this Russian society, obsessed with money and murder, Myshkin stands out. He is routinely lied to, tricked, and taken advantage of. One of the themes of the novel is this: how can this perfectly good human being operate within such a corrupted society?
Although the main character is a modern day saint, Dostoevsky still packs the novel with all varieties of riff-raff, his speciality. Some of the best scenes in the book involve Rogozhin, Myshkin's foil. This character represents the opposite of Myshkin, evil. He hides under dark staircases to watch people pass. He sneaks into people's rooms, sits in the dark, stares at them while they are in bed, says not a word, and slinks out again.
The novel begins with Myshkin meeting Rogozhin on a train and ends with Myshkin and Rogozhin together again for one of the most jaw-dropping endings to a novel I have yet to read. Check it out. There are many wonderful scenes. It's well worth your time.
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3 comments:
The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov, and Crime and Punishment all sit on my bookshelf unread. Which order should I read them and if you have time, why? I think once I finish up the two masters classes I am in, I will try to knock out one Dostoevsky
The order in which I read these three novels seems to have worked out well. Since you have already read Notes from Underground and have a taste for Dostoevsky's style, or even if you didn't, I would suggest reading Crime and Punishment first. Unlike the Brothers Karamasov, which has multiple plotlines, following the three brothers, Crime and Punishment dives deep into the mind and doings of a single man, Raskolnikov, the murderer. I would say that reading this first got me prepared to read The Brothers Karamasov, a similar novel in numerous ways, murder being one, and its multiple plotlines. The Brothers Karamasov, as I'm sure you have noticed, is about three hundred pages longer. In thinking about these three books it seems that Crime and Punishment deals more with the evil inside of man, The Idiot more with the good (see above blog), and The Brothers Karamasov, written well after both of the other two, one of the last things Dostoevsky wrote, tries to encompass everything, bad and good. One brother represts the good, one the bad, and one the middle of the road. Maybe The Brothers Karamasov is the better novel, most critics would probably say so, but I would suggest starting with Crime and Punishment. It is amazing how Dostoevsky manages to put himself inside the mind of a killer; it is so believable that many people were convinced that Dostoevsky had killed someone himself. I would save The Idiot for last. I have Demons (formerly translated as The Possessed), his other most well known work, on the shelf, which I will be sure to report on once I have finished that. Thanks again for the comments.
"represents" not "represts"
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