Published as a serial novel in The Russian Messenger from 1868-1869, The Idiot is Fyodor Dostoevsky’s frustratingly beautiful masterpiece translated into modern and accessible English by Eva Martin.

Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, a positively good and beautiful man, has returned home to Russia after an extended stay at a sanitarium in Switzerland. Open-hearted, sincere, and somewhat simple, the young prince seems to leave an impression on everyone he meets and not always in the best of ways. Presumed to be an imbecile, the life Myshkin lives is good, but not easy—and soon he finds himself torn between his desire for two morally bankrupt women.

Considered by many to be Dostoevsky’s most personal book, this lesser-known translation of The Idiot is a challenging work of philosophical fiction that blends the romance and social novel into a thorough examination of religion, mortality, and love.

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