Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Among Dostoevsky’s finest, 13 Nov 2005
‘The Idiot’ is the story of Prince Myshkin, a young Russian noble. In his infancy, he was diagnosed with a form of ‘idiocy’ and sent to Switzerland to be cured. The book begins with his return to Russia as a young man, apparently cured. However, he is still labelled an ‘idiot’ because his sheltered upbringing abroad means that he doesn’t understand the complex rules governing social interactions among the Russian middle classes, and approaches these interactions with a simple good-heartedness and a willingness to do the right thing.
The main story involves the competition of several young men for Nastasya Fillipovna, a self-destructive beauty whom the rules of society have labelled a fallen woman through no fault of her own. She is forced to choose between a happiness that she is told that she doesn’t deserve with Myshkin, a dangerous existence with the unstable Rogozhin and a loveless life with Gavril Ardilionivich. The rules of society tell her one thing, her heart another. She becomes increasingly agitated, precipitating a descent into near madness and a truly shocking conclusion.
The clash between Myshkin’s ‘idiocy’ (really Dostoevsky’s image of the perfect Christian) and the realities of nineteenth century Russian society is repeated throughout the book. Dostoevsky never tells just one story where a half dozen can be fitted in, and narratives about money, social status, religion and love are all intertwined to illustrate his point. This can become a little disorientating, but Dostoevsky never loses the thread of the book, keeping one eye firmly on his message throughout. The result is a rather complex series of narratives, requiring a lot of concentration, making ‘The Idiot’ a fairly involved read. However, Dostoevsky never allows ‘The Idiot’ to meander or sprawl, sticking closely to his central themes. It is perhaps less concise than ‘Crime and Punishment’, but I found it every bit as powerful, and although Dostoevsky’s language and pace can be slow and ponderous I was gripped throughout. The ending in particular is breathtaking and shocking, hauntingly written and desperately sad.
The only negative was that the translation I read (Wordsworth) was clumsy, starchy and, at times nonsensical. This was annoying, because it did make certain passages slow and even difficult to work out what was going on. I was caught up enough for this not to be a big problem, but I would advise against the Wordsworth edition (though the translator is wisely anonymous, so I can’t tell if there are other editions using the same translation). This aside, ‘The Idiot’ is brilliant. Dostoevsky at his best, and the very definition of a 5 star read.
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Issues with the Wordsworth translation..., 20 Aug 2006
...took the edge off of this book for me. Please, if you're thinking of reading it, don't buy the Wordsworth even if it is much cheaper. The translation is very strained and produces some quite mangled sentences. Particularly with respect to pronouns, I found: sentences like "He said such-and-such to him" frequently left me puzzled as to exactly who was being addressed and by whom. And certain cultural references that I presume would have been obvious to a 19th-century Russian were left unexplained. The lack of any kind of notes or list of characters was also missed.
The blurb and the other reviews suffice to tell what the story is about so I will just add that this is still a very interesting read which could be as good as Crime and Punishment depending on the translation. For a non-Russian the exotic Russian names and particularly the use of patronymics and diminutives adds a little to the confusion and may cause the reader to conflate several characters for quite a while, but I found that after a couple of hundred pages I was more comfortable with this. I was less comfortable with the fiery Russian temperament of the characters - particularly Aglaia and Lizaveta Prokofyevna - which frequently meant that they hated and loved someone...and then hated and loved them again...all in the space of one paragraph. It's often hard to tell who is mad and who is sane. They all seem a little mad. Still, it is certainly very intriguing and interesting and I recommend it.
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23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dostoyevsky at his best, 7 Jul 2002
This is the one novel, where Nabokov's criticism ("wastelands of literary platitudes" and all that) is least justified. For a start, here Dostoyevsky achieved one thing that Nabokov himself consistently failed to: writing in clear and unpretentious everyday language. To what extent this comes across in the translation I don't know. The story is basically about the sudden appearance of a near perfect Christian (or Dostoyevsky's idea of one) and the effect he has on a small group of middle class characters. They ask for his judgement and support in various mucky disputes and dilemmas, try to rob him of his inheritance, pick fights with him, fall in love with him, present him to each other as a prophet, a freak, a status symbol etc. Between them they land him in a psychiatric clinic, which, incidentally, is where he originally appears from. As ever with Dostoyevsky, the moral of the story is spelt out in big letters (the possibility of being a good Christian in a materialistic society and all that comes out of that). And, as ever, you can drive a freight train through the holes in it (this charachter is brought out of nowhere, put back into nowhere in the end and in between given a fairytale inheritance). But, never mind that. "The Idiot" reads like an account of a random section of everyday life. The charachters are real people, for whom I found myself developing real sympathies and antipathies. Even in the most outlandish scenarios everyone reacts in an entirely human and ultimately understandable way. My advice is same as for "Crime and Punishment": read it just for the characters. The moral message you are always free to re-interpret to your own liking. In fact, because Dostoyevsky's own philosophical framework is so shaky, you have all the room for manouever you could wish for.
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