The idiot

Published around 1868-1869, The Idiot is, perhaps, of Dostoevsky's five great novels, the most perfect – in composition, style, and character development. It was also, of all the author's novels, the most misunderstood in its time. Dostoevsky intended, in his own words, to "create the image of the positively good man," an embodiment of beauty, goodness, and humility, a heroic figure between Don Quixote and Christ, showing what can happen to such a man in contact with reality. Starring Myshkin, the prince whose good nature everyone tries to take advantage of, in this book, as in so many other novels by the author, the social, philosophical, and moral problems of the era are dramatized. A treatment to which Dostoevsky's genius lends a strength and breadth that make The Idiot a timeless work.