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The Idiot

By Fyodor Dostoevsky
Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

By Fyodor Dostoevsky
Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

By Fyodor Dostoevsky
Introduction by Richard Pevear
Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

By Fyodor Dostoevsky
Introduction by Richard Pevear
Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

By Fyodor Dostoevsky
Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

By Fyodor Dostoevsky
Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

Best Seller

Part of Vintage Classics

Part of Everyman's Library Classics Series

Part of Vintage Classics

Paperback $18.00

Jul 08, 2003 | ISBN 9780375702242

Hardcover $28.00

Apr 30, 2002 | ISBN 9780375413926

Ebook $13.99

Jul 18, 2012 | ISBN 9780553901894

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    The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
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    Jul 08, 2003 | ISBN 9780375702242

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      Jul 08, 2003 | ISBN 9780375702242

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      Apr 30, 2002 | ISBN 9780375413926

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    About The Idiot

    Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky’s masterful translation of The Idiot is destined to stand with their versions of Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and Demons as the definitive Dostoevsky in English.

    After his great portrayal of a guilty man in Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky set out in The Idiot to portray a man of pure innocence. The twenty-six-year-old Prince Myshkin, following a stay of several years in a Swiss sanatorium, returns to Russia to collect an inheritance and “be among people.” Even before he reaches home he meets the dark Rogozhin, a rich merchant’s son whose obsession with the beautiful Nastasya Filippovna eventually draws all three of them into a tragic denouement. In Petersburg the prince finds himself a stranger in a society obsessed with money, power, and manipulation. Scandal escalates to murder as Dostoevsky traces the surprising effect of this “positively beautiful man” on the people around him, leading to a final scene that is one of the most powerful in all of world literature.

    About The Idiot

    In The Idiot, the saintly Prince Myshkin returns to Russia from a Swiss sanatorium and finds himself a stranger in a society obsessed with wealth, power, and sexual conquest. He soon becomes entangled in a love triangle with a notorious kept woman, Nastasya, and a beautiful young girl, Aglaya. Extortion and scandal escalate to murder, as Dostoevsky’s “positively beautiful man” clashes with the emptiness of a society that cannot accommodate his innocence and moral idealism. The Idiot is both a powerful indictment of that society and a rich and gripping masterpiece.

    From award-winning translators, a masterful new translation–never before published–of the novel in which Fyodor Dostoevsky set out to portray a truly beautiful soul.

    About The Idiot

    Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky’s masterful translation of The Idiot is destined to stand with their versions of Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and Demons as the definitive Dostoevsky in English.

    After his great portrayal of a guilty man in Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky set out in The Idiot to portray a man of pure innocence. The twenty-six-year-old Prince Myshkin, following a stay of several years in a Swiss sanatorium, returns to Russia to collect an inheritance and “be among people.” Even before he reaches home he meets the dark Rogozhin, a rich merchant’s son whose obsession with the beautiful Nastasya Filippovna eventually draws all three of them into a tragic denouement. In Petersburg the prince finds himself a stranger in a society obsessed with money, power, and manipulation. Scandal escalates to murder as Dostoevsky traces the surprising effect of this “positively beautiful man” on the people around him, leading to a final scene that is one of the most powerful in all of world literature.

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

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    Also by Fyodor Dostoevsky

    Notes from a Dead House
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    See all books by Fyodor Dostoevsky

    About Fyodor Dostoevsky

    Fyodor Mikailovich Dostoevsky’s life was as dark and dramatic as the great novels he wrote. He was born in Moscow in 1821. A short first novel, Poor Folk (1846), brought him instant success, but his writing career was cut short by his… More about Fyodor Dostoevsky

    About Fyodor Dostoevsky

    Fyodor Mikailovich Dostoevsky’s life was as dark and dramatic as the great novels he wrote. He was born in Moscow in 1821. A short first novel, Poor Folk (1846), brought him instant success, but his writing career was cut short by his… More about Fyodor Dostoevsky

    About Fyodor Dostoevsky

    Fyodor Mikailovich Dostoevsky’s life was as dark and dramatic as the great novels he wrote. He was born in Moscow in 1821. A short first novel, Poor Folk (1846), brought him instant success, but his writing career was cut short by his… More about Fyodor Dostoevsky

    Product Details

    Category: Literary Fiction | Fiction Classics

    Paperback | $18.00
    Published by Vintage
    Jul 08, 2003 | 656 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780375702242

    Category: Literary Fiction | Fiction Classics

    Hardcover | $28.00
    Published by Everyman’s Library
    Apr 30, 2002 | 672 Pages | 5 x 8 | ISBN 9780375413926

    Category: Literary Fiction | Fiction Classics

    Ebook | $13.99
    Published by Vintage
    Jul 18, 2012 | 656 Pages | ISBN 9780553901894

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    Praise

    Praise for Pevear and Volokhonsky’s translation of Crime and Punishment:

    “Reaches as close to Dostoevsky’s Russian as is possible in English. . . . The original’s force and frightening immediacy is captured. . . . The Pevear and Volokhonsky translation will become the standard English version.” –Chicago Tribune

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