The language of the book is not easy, but not complex enough to put you off, and is similar stylistically. Dostoyevsky creates a world with which you would develop a love-hate relationship, a world with glorified imperfections, a world with terrifying moral values, and a world where being perfect is not even hoped for. The story is a grippy tale of love, rejection, morality, guilt, depression, and longing, which is exquisitely portrayed through complex relationships, which makes you want to step in yourself and scream in the face of the protagonist, for making decisions that make life hell for almost everyone. But when you’re done, you’ll have nothing but sympathy for the poor Prince Myshkin. That’s the moment in the story where you almost hate the protagonist. Towards the end, be prepared for heartbreak, especially if you’ve fallen in love with Nastassya Filippovna and Aglaya Yepanchin, which you definitely will. Rogozhin is madly in love with her already.

However, he isn’t the only one who falls for the infamous mistress. Despite this, Prince Myshkin begins to like her. A wealthy aristocrat, Totsky, seduced her to become his mistress at a very young age and due to this Nastassya gained a negative repute throughout St Petersburg. From here on, the novel won’t leave your fascination until you complete it and put it down wiping your tears.īeing orphaned at the age of 7, Nastassya, also of noble descent, fell into the guardianship of Afanasy Totsky. Subsequently, he meets the talk of the town, the woman known far and wide for her beauty, Nastassya Filippovna. The General’s youngest daughter, Aglaya Yepanchin is fascinated by Prince Myshkin, and he, too, takes a liking to her. On his return, Prince Myshkin meets General Yepanchin, whose wife was his distant relative, and his family. Rogozhin goes on to become Myshkin’s arch-nemesis, his greatest adversary, and admirer at the same time. While on a train to St Petersburg, he meets Parfyon Rogozhin and takes a liking for him. He moves to Russia from Switzerland, where he spent four years for treatment. The story revolves around Prince Myshkin, an epileptic young man from an erstwhile noble lineage. David Magarshack translated the book into English in the year 1955, though he wasn’t the first one to do so. Dostoyevsky, inarguably one of the greatest novelists ever, authored the book originally in Russian, in 1869. Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote “The Idiot” in the late 19th Century, and it continues to be one of the best novels ever written in the world, across all languages and genres.

The idiot book fyodor