Book description
Inspired by an image of Christ's suffering, Dostoyevsky set out to
create a protagonist with "a truly beautiful soul" and to
trace the fate of such an individual as he comes into contact with the
brutal reality of contemporary society. The novel begins when the
innocent epileptic Prince Myshkin - the 'idiot' - arrives in St
Petersburg and finds himself drawn into a web of violent and passionate
relationships that leads to blackmail, betrayal and eventually murder.
Moscow-born Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) served time
in a convict prison for his political alliances, and in his later
years his passion for gambling led him deeply into debt. His novels
include The Devils and The Brothers Karamazov.
David McDuff has translated widely from the Russian, including for
Penguin Classics, Crime and Punishment and Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata.
Introducer William Mills Todd III is Professor of Slavic Languages
at Harvard.
