The Idiot (Oxford World's Classics)

Rating:
Summary: one of F.D.'s most tedious....
Review: Not one of Dostoyevsky's greatest works. An interesting character study, but not much else. A few of the characters are incredibly haunting, the plot is clever, but the actual narrative and story organization leave MUCH to be desired

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!!!
Review: Dostoevsky's fascinating tale about a man that everyone needs, but nobody admits to needing, is a definite must-read. Based on the orthodox Russian idea: What if Jesus didn't know he was the Messiah until the very end

Rating:
Summary: A classic commentary on the futility of the human condition
Review: Dostoevsky tells the story of a simple young man, honest and pure of heart, caught up in the social morass of late 19th century Russia. Prince Myshkin struggles to maintain his beautiful soul amid the decadence swirling around him. Filled with absolutely compelling insight into both the potentially ascertainable heights and horrific depths of how humans treat each other. After reading this, call me an idiot any time.

Rating:
Summary: A beauty of a book ...always timely
Review: I read this book for the first time when I was 15 or 16, and promptly declared it my favorite book. When I read it again in my 30s, it rang even more true. The society in this book is not so different from ours, obsessed with money, beauty, social standing, celebrity, and so forth. People are restless, flawed, seeking peace, while at the same time self-hating, self-destructive, and seeking out danger. What happens to this perfectly good, loving, honest human being, Myshkin, comes to seem inevitable given what we know about human nature, then and now.

Rating:
Summary: How Society Confuses, Dispirits, and Ultimately Destroys
Review: A perfect description of a typical, modern middle-class or upper middle-class family that appears normal but is rotten within. Every member is thoroughly selfish and they manipulate each other, and anyone else within reach, to get whatever it is they feel entitled to at the moment. Into this enters the Prince, who has a purity of soul that inspires both derision and admiration ( often both at once ), and that everyone wants a piece of. His approval ( or "blessing" ), unbiased, reasoned, and saintly, becomes the most powerful force in this fractured household. And, as a result of being scupulously fair and trying to please every conniving member, he is in constant emotional turmoil. This, tragically, leads him to retreat from the home, and finally, to retreat into his own mind.
Dostoyevsky's brilliant take on the idealistic "holy fool" thrust into society after many years of study and isolation, means as much today as it did then. Maybe, more so. If you liked the movies "American Beauty", "Rushmore", "Election", or "Training Day", then you will probably enjoy this classic novel just as much as I did.

Rating:
Summary: Teaches morality... but at what cost
Review: I was "The Idiot" who was told to grab a novel to write a review for and happened to grab a book with a most suiting title. It teaches of the conflicts of one's self and morality, and how difficult it really is. It does this through Prince Myshkin and his illness as well as with the interaction amongst various other characters in the story. I do, however, have a problem with the length of the novel on a whole. But really, who am I to argue... I was the Idiot that picked it up when I clearly knew that I had ADD.

Not recommended for people with ADD, ADHD, short attention span, short tempers, short term memory loss, and long term memory loss.

Rating:
Summary: A let-down
Review: After Crime & Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, reading The Idiot is a major let-down. The Idiot's child-like innocence and purity, etc., is just annoying. He seems utterly in bad faith. The fact that we are meant to take him as being in good faith, as genuine, even as sympathetic, is what wrecks the novel for me. Myshkin seems just a foil for Dostoyevsky's ideas about society, conscience, Christianity, and so on. I don't believe in him as a character. I also don't find the themes discussed particularly interesting. And I didn't find any shockers or surprises in this book, all the moves seemed telegraphed in advance. I appreciated some of the subplots, but every scene with Myshkin in a central role was something of a dud. It's a bit like watching the Star Wars trilogy and groaning every time Luke Skywalker comes on screen. _That guy_ is the hero? Sigh... All this blushing and stammering and poses of meekness. I found myself appreciating the flawed characters much more: General Ivolgin, Lebedev, Rogozhin -- they are real characters with passions, interests, drives. Myshkin is infuriating with his passivity, his emptiness, his tiresome idealism.

Rating:
Summary: Great Pshychologic novel
Review: Dostoievsky is a great author, his books are fully intriguing and his characters represent many religious dilemmas. He's always presenting the anguish of moral conflicts. But no book achieves to represent the dicothomy of christian values as The Idiot does.
The main character is every christian virtue as viewed by the bizantine church on Dostoievsky's time represented and exaggerated. This makes him unsuferable, yet you cannot hate him. This book is a MUST read.

Rating:
Summary: The Mirror
Review: Prince Myshkin arrives in Russia from a sanitorium in Switzerland. On the train journey, he meets Rogozhin and Lebedev, both of whom feature as major characters in the rest of the novel which is devoted to Myshkin's re-entry into Russian society.

Myshkin, Dostoyevsky's "completely beautiful human being", is the mirror in which the various characters of Russian society are reflected - and a mixed-up, sordid lot they are.

"The Idiot" is a long, complicated novel demanding a great deal of concentration from the reader: much of the action and plot development is not spelled out, rather it has to be devined or inferred from the characters' words or attitudes. Especially in the middle part of the novel, when the third person narrative is interrupted, keeping abreast of matters often becomes difficult, there being a real danger of disorientation.

Several things occurred to me after I finished this book. I regretted not having jotted down the characters' names as they appeared - this would have assisted me in keeping track of who was whom, as the cast list is long (it is a Russian novel, after all) and they disappear and then reappear sometimes after a long interval. It's worth persevering with "The Idiot", but I thought that a second reading (when I've got the time) might be worthwhile, as I think I would get even more out of it.

Not an easy read by any means, but a challenge, and one worth taking up.

G Rodgers

Rating:
Summary: The Mind That Matters
Review: Another reviewer states that The Idiot should not be a first foray into Dostoevsky's works....which I disagree with....

Having first read 'Crime and Punishment' and the dark complexity of a good man driven to tortured madness by having committed an unspeakable act, no matter how well-intentioned it might be...I found this novel lacking in comparison....and might suggest this as a starting point, in order to gain an insight into the writing style and illumination of theme one needs to appreciate such a complex author...

Prince Myshkin, the 'good man' protagonist of this novel, is purported by other reviewers to be either a representation of Christ; or a representation of the author himself, a man 'flawed' by his alcoholism and gambling addiction, illustrated as an affliction of epilepsy in the character of Myshkin....a 'defect' which makes him less than desirable to those around him...

However, Myshkin's wealth brings him admiration, frienship, even love; in the persons of some unscrupulous and amoral characters who seek him out for their own personal agendas, regardless of his 'idiocy' while Dostoevksy plays out their affect on this 'pure' man as they attempt to corrupt him as well. The characters are vain, ill-tempered gold-diggers and social climbers, and Myshkin's is tasked with remaining 'pure' in the face of such influence on him.

The novel is long, yes, and takes some attention in order to wade through the myriad characters and situations; and a bit of adeptness at 'reading between the lines' in order to recognize the theme that the author was exploring. However, though I do find it lack-lustre in comparison to C&P, it is a worthwhile read and deserves its place in the annals of classic literature.