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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
Dostoevsky has a gift for inhabiting his characters. They are fully human. They laugh, they cry, they blush, and they do things well as often as they make awful decisions.
The Idiot is no different here. The Prince is a very good man--almost unbelievably so--but he still makes his mistakes, and he is a marvel to the Russian society he returns to after years in Sweden. Many reviews call him Christ-like, but I'm not sure that's really the case. Christ could be a comparison for the Prince's good nature and compassion, but he is still human, and he is still flawed, and so Dostoevsky's letter is illuminating in that he seemed to base his character more on St. John the Baptist as opposed to Christ.
This novel is chaos. There are numerous plot lines, enough intrigue to make for a season of Game of Thrones, and a large cast of characters. Part of the point is, of course, chaos. Whether chaos or structured, we end up in a similar place. There's a thread of fatalism apparent form the novel's opening lines on a train, a guide for the novel's events.
Even the end may seem to be a bit surprising, and, in this way, The Idiot is an extremely contemporary novel, but Dostoevsky is examining how the customs of past and present collide, and the ways in which that can make for beauty as well as disaster.
But the goal here is to witness the disaster and to see how the world (and its inhabitants) will move forward, the same way those who witnessed Christ's death on the Cross could not have predicted his resurrection. Here, Dostoevsky is speaking about a conservative Russian ideal amidst chaos. Would a new Russia emerge and take over, or would the chaos of the present day ravage the past and continue on? I believe Dostoevsky had his faith in the emergence of a new culture and society based on conservative ideals, but how stable or tenuous it was (and is) is still up for debate.
The Idiot is no different here. The Prince is a very good man--almost unbelievably so--but he still makes his mistakes, and he is a marvel to the Russian society he returns to after years in Sweden. Many reviews call him Christ-like, but I'm not sure that's really the case. Christ could be a comparison for the Prince's good nature and compassion, but he is still human, and he is still flawed, and so Dostoevsky's letter is illuminating in that he seemed to base his character more on St. John the Baptist as opposed to Christ.
This novel is chaos. There are numerous plot lines, enough intrigue to make for a season of Game of Thrones, and a large cast of characters. Part of the point is, of course, chaos. Whether chaos or structured, we end up in a similar place. There's a thread of fatalism apparent form the novel's opening lines on a train, a guide for the novel's events.
Even the end may seem to be a bit surprising, and, in this way, The Idiot is an extremely contemporary novel, but Dostoevsky is examining how the customs of past and present collide, and the ways in which that can make for beauty as well as disaster.
But the goal here is to witness the disaster and to see how the world (and its inhabitants) will move forward, the same way those who witnessed Christ's death on the Cross could not have predicted his resurrection. Here, Dostoevsky is speaking about a conservative Russian ideal amidst chaos. Would a new Russia emerge and take over, or would the chaos of the present day ravage the past and continue on? I believe Dostoevsky had his faith in the emergence of a new culture and society based on conservative ideals, but how stable or tenuous it was (and is) is still up for debate.
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have finished! I started this last year and then set it down for quite a while before picking it up every now and again. I decided this past week to read 50+ pages a day until I finished the book, ultimately deciding on finishing it today. I feel I would have enjoyed it more had I read it more consistently and finished it in a more reasonable period of time so that all characters and facts were more clearly in my mind throughout the book. I did find the Russian naming convention tripping me up due to the frequent pauses in reading, but for the most part it was not so confusing that I had no idea what was going on. I find with this book I did not really understand it nearly as much as I did Crime and Punishment. This is perhaps due to the reading habits sustained throughout this book, but I did not see the overarching thread or theme come to a head at the end and was quite surprised by the last line of the book. I'm not sure what to make of .All of it, all these foreign countries, the whole of this Western Europe of yours, is just a mirage, and all of us here abroad amount to no more than a mirage either... mark my words, you'll see for yourselves!" she concluded almost in a temper as she bade farewell to Yevgeny Pavlovich.' Why should the last words of the book be 'Yevgeny Pavlovich'? Strange to me as he wasn't even one of the most prominent main characters, to my understanding, though he did maintain his friendship with Prince Myshkin throughout the book. I'm just not sure what to make of it and am unsure what to rate this one.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes