The Idiot

Dostoyevsky’s novel of Prince Muishkin, a gentle, trusting young man who comes back to St Petersburg after years of treatment for epilepsy in Switzerland and is drawn into the lives of the beautiful, wronged Nastasia Philipovna, the passionate Rogojin and the Epanchin family.

Start reading50 chapters, about 245,000 words

Famous quotes

• I believe that to execute a man for murder is to punish him immeasurably more dreadfully than is equivalent to his crime. A murder by sentence is far more dreadful than a murder committed by a criminal.

  Part I, Chapter IIIn context

  • Justice
  • Laws

• What should I do if I were not to die now? What if I were to return to life again? What an eternity of days, and all mine! How I should grudge and count up every minute of it, so as to waste not a single instant!

  Part I, Chapter VIn context

  • Life & Death
  • Time

• A fool with a heart and no brains is just as unhappy as a fool with brains and no heart.

  Part I, Chapter VIIIn context

  • Happiness
  • Intelligence

• Compassion is the chief law of human existence.

  Part II, Chapter VIn context

  • Morality

• Oh, you may be perfectly sure that if Columbus was happy, it was not after he had discovered America, but when he was discovering it!

  Part III, Chapter VIn context

  • Happiness

• It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool’s paradise!

  Part IV, Chapter VIn context

  • Happiness
  • Truth & Lies

Contents

Part I

1. Chapter I
2. Chapter II
3. Chapter III
4. Chapter IV
5. Chapter V
6. Chapter VI
7. Chapter VII
8. Chapter VIII
9. Chapter IX
10. Chapter X
11. Chapter XI
12. Chapter XII
13. Chapter XIII
14. Chapter XIV
15. Chapter XV
16. Chapter XVI

Part II

1. Chapter I
2. Chapter II
3. Chapter III
4. Chapter IV
5. Chapter V
6. Chapter VI
7. Chapter VII
8. Chapter VIII
9. Chapter IX
10. Chapter X
11. Chapter XI
12. Chapter XII

Part III

1. Chapter I
2. Chapter II
3. Chapter III
4. Chapter IV
5. Chapter V
6. Chapter VI
7. Chapter VII
8. Chapter VIII
9. Chapter IX
10. Chapter X

Part IV

1. Chapter I
2. Chapter II
3. Chapter III
4. Chapter IV
5. Chapter V
6. Chapter VI
7. Chapter VII
8. Chapter VIII
9. Chapter IX
10. Chapter X
11. Chapter XI
12. Chapter XII