The Idiot [Blackstone]

By: Fyodor Dostoevsky

Narrated by: Robert Whitfield

Length: 22 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Despite the harsh circumstances besetting his own life - abject poverty, incessant gambling, and the death of his firstborn child - Dostoevsky produced a second masterpiece, The Idiot, just two years after completing Crime and Punishment. In it, a saintly man, Prince Myshkin, is thrust into the heart of a society more concerned with wealth, power, and sexual conquest than the ideals of Christianity. Myshkin soon finds himself at the center of a violent love triangle in which a notorious woman and a beautiful young girl become rivals for his affections. Extortion, scandal, and murder follow, testing the wreckage left by human misery to find "man in man."

©2000 Blackstone Audiobooks. Originally published in 1880 in Russia.

Critic reviews

"Nothing is outside Dostoevsky's province....Out of Shakespeare there is no more exciting reading." (Virginia Woolf)

Psychological study

Doestoevsky's usual insight into complex human behavior, moral questions and cosmological considerations.

Listen to the name pronunciation was the best part

Once you understand it was released as an installment piece for a magazine it's understandable.

Great writing but not a happy ending

Would you listen to The Idiot [Blackstone] again? Why?

I think I would listen again because the characters are interesting and there is some deeper meaning, though I can't say what it is.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Idiot [Blackstone]?

When Mishken and Gegorgean are together at the end. That was both strange and sad. Also when Adolia takes Mishken to see Natashia.

Which scene was your favorite?

When Mishken goes off on all the elites at the party he was supposed to sit and not talk at.

Any additional comments?

This book is hillarious in parts and very sad in parts. It's not a feel good book at all. The narrorator speaks quickly

masterful performance

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

We all know this is a masterwork. This reader is very talented and brings the story to life.

A Classic

an amazing and insightful account of the human condition. splendidly woven detail. the heroic honesty of Myshkin is a bright light.

Salvation under the weight of our own humanity.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if a person as selfless and beautiful as the Jesus portrayed in the bible? Someone so in tune with humanity so aware of its horrors and imperfections, yet so wholly consumed by his love of humanity that he would destroy himself just for the chance of allowing you to save yourself?

That was what Dostoevsky was attempting to do, and by the gods, he did it. The story may not be for everyone, but if you stick with it you will be amazed. This is far and away my favorite Dostoevsky novel, and I have read all of them.

Considering how difficult it is to find a decent reading of any of Dostoevsky's longer works Robert Whitfield is incredible. Every character has a voice that you can recollect instantly when it hits your ears. He engages the writing and manages to bring life to it even with this dated translation. You will find no better on Audible, and you would do you well to treat your soul to this difficult, but compelling novel.

The novel itself starts with figures of Christ, the Anti-Christ, and the False Prophet conversing together on a train, and from there things proceed until both Myshkin and Rogozhin stand at opposite ends as Nastassya Filippovna fights between salvation and damnation even as the sins of her humanity where down on her conscience and soul.

There are of course, more characters, more events. A Dostoevsky novel could never be otherwise, and by the end of the novel you will see yourself in one of the characters. You have to, the whole of humanity is on display here through the interactions his characters. They are all simultaneously real and unreal. Like Shakespeare, Dostoevsky creates characters that turn their humanity to 11 and engage your very soul with their complexity and utter irrationality.

Dostoevsky is attempting to show us the truth that Christ offered us: no one can save us, nor can He cannot save, He can only open the door. Only we ourselves can choose to enter that door through which salvation is attainable. It is hard, no, impossible, and Dostoevsky, like the his Christ knew this and the book conveys this understanding with an undeniable beauty. We are evil, we are kind, we are a paradox capable of the most horrendous acts of selfishness and kindness, often within quick succession. This is what it is to be human, and Dostoevsky relishes it and rejects any and all ideas that would take away our free will in deciding how to live our lives.

You will not feel clean after reading this novel, it will sting, it will pull and eat at you for days after the final words has crept through your headphones and left you in silence. But there is beauty in it. A poetic perfection that makes itself more and more manifest with every listen. Though written in the mid-19th century, we are no different than the world Dostoevsky knew and loved. Buy this or don't, it your choice. Just know that as of right now, you are 650 pages away from growing a soul.

A Real Prince

On a quick research, I couldn't find the origin of the idiom, "Prince among men." Prince Myshkin in Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" is who immediately came to mind when I recently heard that phrase, well after having read and listened to this book several months ago.

What happens when you drop into higher society a man with a title but an illness that took him away to Switzerland for all his youth? Dostoevsky wanted to write a novel that answered the question of how society of the day would treat a true innocent, an unmarried man in his mid-20s who does not sin and only has love to give (in Christianity, only One fits that description). To me, this was Dostoevsky's sad, but hopeful parabolic answer. While published in 1869, "The Idiot" is essentially timeless and one of the best 100 novels of all time.

The narration was perfect.

I highly recommend this audiobook.

Lizabetha Prokofievna rules & Yes, he was an idiot

Where does The Idiot [Blackstone] rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I likes this book so much, that I even prefer it to The Brothers Karamazov. In The Idiot, the "angelic" character Myshkin is even more annoying than Alyosha Karamazov, but the other characters are much more likeable in this book. There is a great deal of humor, and it is less tempered here than in the Karamazov drama.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Lizabetha Prokofievna's character is surrounded by humor and she was the most sympathetic character; hers made the book very enjoyable.

Which scene was your favorite?

"Be quiet, Aglaya! Be quiet, Alexandra! It is none of your business! Don't fuss round me like that, Evgenie Pavlovitch; you exasperate me! So, my dear," she cried, addressing the prince, "you go so far as to beg their pardon! He says, 'Forgive me for offering you a fortune.' And you, you mountebank, what are you laughing at?" she cried, turning suddenly on Lebedeff's nephew. "'We refuse ten thousand roubles; we do not beseech, we demand!' As if he did not know that this idiot will call on them tomorrow to renew his offers of money and friendship. You will, won't you? You will? Come, will you, or won't you?"

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Both The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov have the "angelic" character; presumably, the one who is too good to survive in our world of men and women. These are similar to Lars Von Trier's "Dancer in the Dark" or "Breaking the Waves". However, whereas the film characters are very likeable, Myshkin and Alyosha are annoying or downright infuriating. However, Dostoyevki knits such an entertaining story with other, flawed characters who are very likeable, so the overall experience is absorbing.

Najaf

Please, can anyone tell me which translation Mr.Robert Whitfield is narrating? I like to listen and read the same time.

Wonderful reading by Whitfield

Seems to me that the reader knew the book well. He has also done Don Quixote and read the voice of Prince M's best man in the voice he chose for Sancho Panza. I was initially puzzled by the ugly voices he chose for Prince M's two love interests, but they seemed well-chosen by the end.