The Idiot

This article is about the Dostoyevsky novel. For other uses, see The Idiot (disambiguation).

The Idiot
Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of The Idiot
Author(s)	Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Original title	Идиот
Country	Russia
Language	Russian language
Genre(s)	Novel
Publication date	1869
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback)
Preceded by	The Gambler
Followed by	Demons

The Idiot (Russian: Идиот, Idiot) is a novel written by 19th century Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published serially in The Russian Messenger between 1868 and 1869. The Idiot is ranked beside some of Dostoyevsky's other works as one of the most brilliant literary achievements of the "Golden Age" of Russian literature. It was not published in English until the 20th century.

Plot introduction

Twenty-six-year-old Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin returns to Russia after spending several years at a Swiss sanatorium. Scorned by the society of St. Petersburg for his trusting nature and naivete, he finds himself at the center of a struggle between a beautiful kept woman and a virtuous and pretty young girl, both of whom win his affection. Unfortunately, Myshkin's very goodness precipitates disaster, leaving the impression that, in a world obsessed with money, power, and sexual conquest, a sanatorium may be the only place for a saint.

Plot summary

Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, a fair-haired young man in his late twenties and a descendant of one of the oldest Russian lines of nobility, arrives in St. Petersburg on a November morning. He has spent the last four years in a Swiss clinic for treatment of his epilepsy and supposed intellectual deficiencies.

Myshkin's only relation in St. Petersburg is the very distant Lizaveta Prokofyevna Yepanchin. Madame Yepanchin is the wife of General Yepanchin, a wealthy and respected man in his late fifties. The prince makes the acquaintance of the Yepanchins, who have three daughters—Alexandra, Adelaida, and Aglaya, the last being the youngest and the most beautiful.

General Yepanchin has an ambitious and vain assistant named Gavril Ardalyonovich Ivolgin (nicknamed Ganya) whom Myshkin also meets during his visit to the household. Ganya, though actually in love with Aglaya, is trying to marry Anastassya Filippovna Barashkov, an extraordinarily beautiful femme fatale who was once the mistress of the aristocrat Totsky. Totsky has promised Ganya 75,000 rubles if he marries the "fallen" Nastassya Filippovna instead. As Myshkin is so innocent and naïve, Ganya openly discusses the subject of the proposed marriage in front of the prince.

The prince rents a room in the Ivolgin apartment, also occupied by Ganya; Ganya's sister Varvara Ardalyonovna (Varya); his mother, Nina Alexandrovna; his teenage brother, Nikolai (Kolya); his father, General Ivolgin; and another lodger named Ferdyshchenko.

Nastassya Filippovna arrives and insults Ganya's family, which has refused to accept her as a possible wife for Ganya. Myshkin restrains her from continuing. A rowdy crowd of drunks and rogues arrives, headed by Parfyon Semyonovich Rogozhin, a dark-haired twenty-seven-year-old who is passionately in love with Nastassya Filippovna. Rogozhin promises to bring 100,000 rubles to Nastassya Filippovna's birthday party that evening at which she is to announce whom she shall marry.

Among the guests at the party are Totsky, General Yepanchin, Ganya, Ferdyshchenko, Ptitsyn—a usurer friend of Ganya's who is a suitor to Varya Ivolgin—and others. With the acquiescence of Kolya, Prince Myshkin arrives, uninvited. Following Myshkin's advice, Nastassya Filippovna refuses Ganya's proposal. Rogozhin arrives with the promised 100,000 rubles, but Myshkin himself offers to marry Nastassya Filippovna instead, announcing that he has recently received a large inheritance. Though surprised by Myshkin's generous offer, Nastassya Filippovna deems only Rogozhin worthy of her company and soon leaves the party with him.

Nastassya Filippovna then vacillates between Rogozhin and Myshkin for the next six months or so. Myshkin's inheritance turns out to be smaller than expected and shrinks further as he satisfies the often fraudulent claims of creditors and alleged relatives. Finally, he returns to St. Petersburg and visits Rogozhin's house. They discuss religion and exchange crosses.

Later that day, Rogozhin, motivated by jealousy, attempts to stab Myshkin in the hall of the prince's hotel, but an unanticipated epileptic fit saves the prince. Myshkin then leaves St. Petersburg for Pavlovsk, a nearby town popular as a summer residence of St. Petersburg nobility. The prince rents several rooms from Lebedev, a rogue functionary. Most of the novel's characters—the Yepanchins, the Ivolgins, Varya and her husband Ptitsyn, and Nastassya Filippovna—spend the summer in Pavlovsk as well.

Burdovsky, a young man who claims to be the son of Myshkin's late benefactor, Pavlishchev, demands money from Myshkin as a "just" reimbursement for Pavlishchev's support. Burdovsky is supported by a group of insolent young men who include the consumptive seventeen-year old Hippolite Terentyev, a friend of Kolya Ivolgin. Although Burdovsky's claim is obviously fraudulent—he is not Pavlishchev's son at all—Myshkin is willing to help Burdovsky financially.

The prince now spends much of his time at the Yepanchins'. He falls in love with Aglaya and she appears to reciprocate his feelings. A haughty, willful, and capricious girl, she refuses to publicly admit her love and in fact often openly mocks him. Yet her family begins to acknowledge him as her fiancé and even stages a dinner party in the couple's honor for members of the Russian nobility.

Over the course of an ardent speech on religion and the future of aristocracy, Myshkin accidentally breaks a beautiful Chinese vase. Later that evening he suffers a mild epileptic fit. Guests and family agree that the sickly prince is not a good match for Aglaya.

Yet Aglaya does not renounce Myshkin and even arranges to meet Nastassya Filippovna, who has been writing her letters in an attempt to persuade her to marry Myshkin. At the meeting the two women confront the Prince and demand that he choose between Aglaya, whom he loves romantically, and Nastassya Filippovna, for whom he has compassionate pity. Myshkin demurs, prompting Aglaya to depart, ending all hope for an engagement between them. Nastassya Filippovna then renews her vow to marry the Prince, but elopes with Rogozhin instead.

The prince follows Nastassya and Rogozhin to St. Petersburg and learns Rogozhin has inexplicably slain Nastassya Filippovna during the night. The two men keep vigil over her body, which Rogozhin has laid out in his study. Rogozhin is sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor in Siberia, Myshkin goes mad and returns to the sanitorium, and Aglaya, against the wishes of her family, marries a wealthy, exiled Polish count that later is discovered to be neither wealthy, nor a count, nor an exile—at least, not a political exile—and that turns her against her family.

Adaptations and tributes

• Several filmmakers have produced adaptations of the novel, among them L'idiot (Georges Lampin 1946), a 1951 version by Akira Kurosawa, a 1958 version by Russian director Ivan Pyryev, Salil Dutta's "Aparichito", a 1969 Bengali film, and Mani Kaul's 1992 Hindi version.
• Truman Capote's novella Breakfast at Tiffany's (1957) —also later a popular film (1961)— is a loose adaptation of the novel, featuring a struggling New York writer whose affections are torn between a wealthy patron and the beautiful and slightly batty waif downstairs
• In 2001, Down House, a tongue-in-cheek modern adaptation/parody of the novel, was filmed by Russian director Roman Kachanov, using the late 1990s Moscow underworld of mafia and drug addicts as the setting; it featured Fyodor Bondarchuk as the Prince and the co-writer of the script, Ivan Okhlobystin as Rogozhin.
• Christian Bale's character in The Machinist is seen reading The Idiot at various points throughout the film.
• Iggy Pop's 1977 album The Idiot is titled in reference to James Osterberg, Tony Visconti and David Bowie's love of the book.
• In 2003, Russian State Television produced a 10-part, 8-hour mini-series of the work, directed by Vladimir Bortko for Russia 1, which is available with English subtitles.
• In 1999, the Tabakov Theatre produced an adaptation of the novel, adapted and directed by Alexandre Marine with the show later airing on the Kultura television as TV-play.
• In 1999, Czech director Saša Gedeon produced a modern cinematic reinterpretation of The Idiot entitled The Return of the Idiot (Návrat idiota).
• The Polish director Andrzej Wajda adapted the last chapter of The Idiot as the feature film Nastasja in 1994.
• The Russian composer Nikolai Myaskovsky planned an opera on The Idiot during World War I but did not complete it.
• The Harlan Ellison short story Prince Myshkin and Hold the Relish features a friendly debate on Dostoyevsky and The Idiot between the narrator and a vendor at Pink's Hot Dogs in Los Angeles.
• In 2008, the theatre director Katie Mitchell premiered "...some trace of her", a multimedia exploration of the novel's central themes.
• The famous Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky planned an adaptation after The Idiot, but had died before it was realized.
• The German novelist Hermann Hesse wrote in 1919 a short piece about the book called Thoughts on The Idiot of Dostoevsky, later released in a compilation of essays called My Belief: Essays on Life and Art.
• In Act 1, Scene 2 of Mel Brooks' musical The Producers, Max Bialystock jokingly addresses Leo Bloom as "Prince Miskin." This also occurs in the original film.
• In the 1998 pilot episode of T.V. show "Seven Days", Frank Parker (played by Jonathan LaPaglia) has a copy of The Idiot on his desk inside the insane asylum.
• In 2009, Lithuanian theatre director Eimuntas Nekrošius directed "Idiotas", performance in 4 parts.
• In 1985, Polish director Andrzej Zulawski directed the feature film "L'Amour Braque" (Limpet Love), as a homage to Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot". Its end credits state that "The film is inspired by Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot" and intended as a homage to the great writer". It stars Sophie Marceau as what most likely is the part of Nastasja Philipovna.
• BBC Radio 7 broadcast a 4-episode adaptation of "The Idiot" entitled "Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot," in June 2010. It starred Paul Rhys as Prince Myshkin.
• Simon Gray's stage adaptation was produced by the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic Theatre, London in 1970, starring Derek Jacobi.
• In June 2011, Russian Director Victor Sobchak adapted this story into a short two-hour play at The Theatre Collection in Camden, above The Lord Stanley Arms pub. London born, Indian actor Ajay Nayyar played the role of Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin
• In October 2011, Australian Director and Sound Designer Max Lyandvert adapted the show into a Three Act play performed by National Institute of Dramatic Art students at Bay 20, CarriageWorks in Sydney, Australia. Harry Greenwood played the role of Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin.
• In October 2011, Estonian director Rainer Sarnet adapted the book to a feature film "The Idiot", starring Risto Kübar as Prince Myshkin.

English translations

Since The Idiot was first published in Russian, there have been a number of translations into English over the years, including those by:

• Frederick Whishaw (1887)
• Constance Garnett (1913)
  • Revised by Anna Brailovsky (2003)
• Eva Martin (1915)
• David Magarshack (1955)
• John W. Strahan (1965)
• Henry Carlisle and Olga Carlisle (1980)
• Alan Myers (1992)
• Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (2002)
• David McDuff (2004)
• Ignat Avsey (2010)

The Constance Garnett translation was for many years accepted as the definitive English translation, but more recently it has come under criticism for being dated. The Garnett translation, however, still remains widely available because it is now in the public domain. Some writers, such as Anna Brailouvsky, have based their translations on Garnett's. Since the 1990s, new English translations have appeared that have made the novel more accessible to English readers.

The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation (2000) states that the Alan Myers version is the best currently available, though since then, new translations by David McDuff and Pevear & Volokhonsky have also been well received.

External links

• The Idiot; full text in English
• The Idiot at Project Gutenberg (Eva Martin translation)
• Full text of The Idiot in Russian
• Spoken word recording of the Eva M Martin (1915) English translation