The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Idiot by Fyodor Dosteovsky
Guidance or Advice –
The title is an ironic reference to the central character of the novel, Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, a young man whose goodness, open-hearted simplicity and guilelessness lead many of the more worldly characters he encounters to mistakenly assume that he lacks intelligence and insight.
In the character of Prince Myshkin, Dostoevsky set himself the task of depicting "the positively good and beautiful man."
Result -
The novel examines the consequences of this character when at the centre of conflicts, desires, passions and the egoism of worldly society.
Given that I could relate to the almost otherworldly Russian Prince at times, I expect that many others can too. Whenever you conduct yourself in a manner that seems just and truthful and everything around you seems to falls apart, in an almost inexplicable way given that you have done or said what you felt to be right, then you have just found yourself in a similar situation to 'The Idiot'.
A quote encountered recently seems like it would be good advice for the main character of this novel;
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said." - Voltaire
