Kismet Classics

Prince Myshkin returns to Russia from an asylum in Switzerland. As he becomes embroiled in the frantic amatory and financial intrigues which center around a cast of brilliantly realized characters and which ultimately lead to tragedy, he emerges as a unique combination of the Christian ideal of perfection and Dostoyevsky's own views. His serene selflessness is contrasted with the worldly qualities of every other character in the novel.

In The Idiot, Dostoyevsky supplies a harsh indictment of the Russian ruling class of his day who have created a world which cannot accommodate the goodness of this ‘idiot.’

Joseph Frank has called The Idiot “perhaps the most original of Dostoevsky's great novels ...”