The Idiot (AmazonClassics Edition)

By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Frederick Whishaw - translator

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 22 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

After being treated for epilepsy at a Swiss sanatorium, Prince Muishkin returns to St. Petersburg to reconnect with a wealthy distant relative and her family. Guileless and charming, Muishkin endears himself to everyone he meets, and they place him in the center of high society’s conflicts. Soon Muishkin becomes caught in a sphere of jealousy, betrayal, extortion, and murder. And he finds his loyalties divided between two women - one needing love, the other salvation.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s most personal work, The Idiot is an uncompromising look at a corrupt world where moral men and women are sometimes limited to immoral choices.

Revised edition: Previously published as The Idiot, this edition of The Idiot (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.

Public Domain (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Intriguing

Although the amount of characters to keep track of is at times daunting, this story is hard to put down! I found myself questioning the moral authority of situations in my own life after comparing them to that of The Prince.

lack of story and depth

I had listened to it in early January and then read a Kindle version in October. Definitely better than audio for writing that is more time-specific. I still found it to be 3 stars or less. Sub-plots that meander uselessly (Hippolyte and his story) and nuances that really don't depict characters any more clearly (Vera, her brother) than the first of many times. IMHO the Idiot himself was amidst the shallow and hindered and continued to expect things would change after repeated intrusions. I have read reviews saying that the idiot Prince (the hero) was better than the others. Was he really? He said he loved the general's youngest daughter (really? why? because she was a child IMO idiot without education or interest). Nastasia perhaps but then he did not develop anything with her prior to the wedding (IMO showing he was an Idiot). Of all people why did Nastasia run off with her unloved and known to be evil,Repoge (is she too an Idiot). Maybe Dostoyevsky is saying everyone of supposed societal leadership is an idiot and can't be trusted. If that is the case why move into a religious tirade (by our hero idiot) that leads to his ultimate demise and transition back to idiocy. Is he saying Christians and the heros' unloved Catholics are Idiots too? I don't think so. Was the violence of religion just a tool for the story? It just did not seem to be needed in that context.

The Dostoyevsky writing was good but again the story and purpose seemed to be thrown together with character development and its depth sorely missing.

Who’s the idiot?

So mindlessly idiotic and boring dialogue.
I kept waiting for some epiphany of understanding to why the characters are doing what they do and what relevance the back stories have to the current situation. I was grasping for deeper meaning of philosophy or wisdom. So I kept listening and ignoring the feeling I’m wasting time on this book, hoping to reach some resolution to the plot and then story just ended…and that’s when I realized.
I am the idiot.

Poor reading very viewing

Not worth reading very viewing author is not interesting not a good selection at all

Boring!

Such a disappointment.I loved "Notes From the Underground" and Crime and Punishment " but after struggling to make it halfway through I bailed.