The Idiot

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.

Notes from Underground

The first of a few Dostoevsky novels that I will be talking about is Notes from Underground, 1864. If you have never read a book written by Fyodor Dostoevsky, the famous Russian writer, consider your life incomplete. Thanks in large part to the works of Dostoevsky, Russia can boast to have produced some of the world's greatest works of fiction. The two biggest names being: Tolstoy (War and Peace, Anna Karenina), and Dostoevsky, our topic of conversation.

Dostoevsky's novels are dark, stygian; no sunshine and lollipops here. This is a large part of what makes them so enjoyable. The characters all suffer from flaws, desires, disturbed thoughts, and dark secrets, some much darker than others. The unnamed narrator of Notes from Underground is no exception. This character is a man who has found it hard to participate normally in society, and who now spends a majority of his time in self-sequesterment, underground.

The novella (short novel, the book is only 130 pages, all the more reason to pick it up) is divided into two sections. The first section consists of the narrator's half-crazy, half-genius ramblings (there is pleasure in a toothache) about life, his life, the way people tend to look at life, and the errors he sees in the way people live and look at life. Some claim this to be the first "existentialist" novel. What does that mean? It's a way of looking at the world. Here's the American Heritage Dictionary's definition:

Existentialism - n. A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts

Makes sense. In the second section of the novella the narrator describes a few experiences that have strengthened his distaste for society. He tries to assert himself by planning to walk past an officer who had previously offended him, and to not give way at all when passing him. I'm sure you know what it feels like to be the one who moves out of the way first when someone is walking past you in close quarters, demasculating maybe. The narrator decides he is not going to move this time; he is not going to be the one to submit. He dwells on this and plans, attempts, fails, and tries again. As you can see, this character is not a nice person, and is definately neurotic. The way he explains himself, though, you can not help but empathize. The other events in the second section are him, with his old highschool buddies, whom he now hates, and who all feel basically the same way about him, and him befriending/tormenting a prostitute. These are more developed than the first, but you will have to read it yourself to find out what happens. It's good.

Hopefully this has piqued your interest in this short novel. It is a quick read and pays off ten to twenty-fold. You will want to reread it for the rest of your life.

More Dostoevsky to come. . .