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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A conflicted rating. The first half was great, the story if his first day in st Petersburg. The third quarter was an exposition of how stupid, awful, and boring people can be, and I realized I don't need to spend time getting annoyed by fictional slimeballs when I can perfectly well be annoyed by real ones, so I stopped reading. Just as well because apparently that's basically the point of the novel.
There is no one idiot in this novels; they're all idiots.
slow-paced
Ler Dostoievski é ter uma aula intensa de Psicologia, em que se aborda o que há de mais fundo na alma humana, comportamentos que todos temos e não sabemos bem porquê, não compreendemos o que nos levou a agir de determinada maneira. Há psicologia, discussões filosóficas, religiosas e políticas, debates sobre a sociedade (russa e europeia) do século XIX, e, acima de tudo, a tentativa de entendimento do ser humano. É isto que Dostoievski traz ao leitor: múltiplas questões e respostas que fazem deste livro um tesouro da literatura mundial.
Neste livro, Dostoievski faz muitas referências a alguns escritores russos, como Gógol, Púchkin e Turguéniev, o que me deu ainda mais vontade de conhecer mais obras da literatura russa.
Para mim, este livro não supera 'Os Irmãos Karamazov', mas acho que mais nenhum livro vai superar nunca. Ter lido, com 20 anos, aquele que considero O livro da minha vida, torna todas as leituras futuras (incluindo as de Dostoievski) e respectivas opiniões um bocadinho mais injustas. Este é um livro maravilhoso, que, claro, merece 5 estrelas bem gordas!
Neste livro, Dostoievski faz muitas referências a alguns escritores russos, como Gógol, Púchkin e Turguéniev, o que me deu ainda mais vontade de conhecer mais obras da literatura russa.
Para mim, este livro não supera 'Os Irmãos Karamazov', mas acho que mais nenhum livro vai superar nunca. Ter lido, com 20 anos, aquele que considero O livro da minha vida, torna todas as leituras futuras (incluindo as de Dostoievski) e respectivas opiniões um bocadinho mais injustas. Este é um livro maravilhoso, que, claro, merece 5 estrelas bem gordas!
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
basically keeping up with the kardashians except everybody is russian and more insane
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Sexism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual assault, Death of parent
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Dostoevsky wrote “The Idiot” between 1868 and 1869 while living in Florence, and the palpable presence of St. Petersburg, so notable in “Crime and Punishment,” is absent from “The Idiot.” In the novel, Dostoevsky set out to tell the story of a “perfectly beautiful man” in the character of Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin, who has returned to Russia after having spent time recuperating from illness in Switzerland. Prince Myshkin is open and transparent, and completely without pretense or guile in his interactions with others. As such, his behavior is baffling to those around him, who consider him mentally deficient. He is Christ-like in his goodness and Quixotic (the character Aglaya refers to him as her “poor knight”) in his ridiculous simplicity. As mentioned in letters to his niece, Sofya Ivanova, Dostoevsky believed this simple beauty would inspire sympathy in readers.
Like Dostoevsky, Myshkin suffers from epilepsy and the description of the aura and ensuing seizure that the Prince experiences in the hallway when confronted by Rogozhin accurately reflect knowledge of the condition:
“Then suddenly it was as if something opened up before him: an extraordinary inner light illumined his soul. This moment lasted perhaps half a second; but he nevertheless remembered clearly and consciously the beginning, the very first sound of his terrible scream, which burst from his breast of itself and which no force would have enabled him to stop. Then his consciousness instantly went out, and there was total darkness.”
Also, the Prince provides a riveting account of a prisoner’s experience of waiting in line to be executed only to be spared at the last minute, an experience that Dostoevsky had when we was 28 years old.
The novel contains a confusing cast of characters with the usual 3-part Russian names as well as nicknames. The Prince is contrasted with the passionate but coarse Rogozhin who is consumed by his desire to possess Nastasya. Nastasya is tormented by society’s view of her as a “fallen” woman (she was seduced as a young girl by Afanasy Ivanovich Totsky in whose care she had been placed). Two main families struggle to maintain their dignity and social position: the Epanchins with doting mother Lizaveta Prokofyevna and 3 daughters: Alexandra, Adelaida, and Aglaya, and the Ivolgins with a drunken delusional father and a struggling family that includes Nina, Gavrila (Ganya), Varvara, and Kolya (a delightful teenager and loyal friend to the Prince).
One theme of the book is the issue of Christ as man versus God. In the painting, “Christ’s Body in the Tomb” by Hans Holbein, Christ is rendered simply as a man who had died after tremendous suffering. The painting had a profound effect on Dostoevsky when he saw it in Basel, and the novel seems to consider the question: “What if Christ was merely a man?” - Namely, someone capable of setting an example of ideal human behavior but without the ability to redeem mankind. In the story, the Prince has tremendous pity for Nastasya Filippovna, but he is not able to redeem her. The Prince has difficulty differentiating love from pity, and in the end cannot bring himself to leave Nastasya whom he pities and follow Aglaya whom he loves.
Greed for money also plays a major role in the story. Most of the characters are perpetually jostling over money while the Prince is happy to give away part of his inheritance to a group of young nihilists who (ironically enough) are materialistic enough to dream up a scheme to defraud him of it. In a another memorable scene, Nastasya throws the 100,000 rubles Rogozhin has raised to outbid Ganya for her hand in marriage into the fireplace and taunts Ganya to pull the bundle of notes from the fire.
Throughout the novel, the childlike candor of the Prince is contrasted to the falseness and pretense of 19th century Russian society. Being open and childlike, the Prince is loved by the children around him when he is living in Switzerland. However the candor of childhood usually is lost by adulthood, and the Epanchins and Ivolgins are constantly trying to impress everyone around them with their contrived social status. Lizaveta Prokofyevna worries about settling her daughters (somewhat like Mrs. Bennett in “Pride and Prejudice”). Overall, the female characters in this story are characterized by their unpredictable capricious behavior – especially Nastasya and Aglaya. Aglaya alternately encourages and rejects the Prince. Even the consumptive nihilist Ippolit is shown to be hypocritical when he intentionally botches his own suicide by failing to prepare the gun properly.
I wanted to like this novel more than I did. Its parody of 19th century Russia (socialites and nihilists alike) and the saintly indecisiveness of the Prince in his interactions with Nastasya and Aglaya are no match for the brooding introspection of the murderous student Raskolnikov. If you can only bring yourself to read one novel by Dostoevsky, make it “Crime and Punishment.”
Like Dostoevsky, Myshkin suffers from epilepsy and the description of the aura and ensuing seizure that the Prince experiences in the hallway when confronted by Rogozhin accurately reflect knowledge of the condition:
“Then suddenly it was as if something opened up before him: an extraordinary inner light illumined his soul. This moment lasted perhaps half a second; but he nevertheless remembered clearly and consciously the beginning, the very first sound of his terrible scream, which burst from his breast of itself and which no force would have enabled him to stop. Then his consciousness instantly went out, and there was total darkness.”
Also, the Prince provides a riveting account of a prisoner’s experience of waiting in line to be executed only to be spared at the last minute, an experience that Dostoevsky had when we was 28 years old.
The novel contains a confusing cast of characters with the usual 3-part Russian names as well as nicknames. The Prince is contrasted with the passionate but coarse Rogozhin who is consumed by his desire to possess Nastasya. Nastasya is tormented by society’s view of her as a “fallen” woman (she was seduced as a young girl by Afanasy Ivanovich Totsky in whose care she had been placed). Two main families struggle to maintain their dignity and social position: the Epanchins with doting mother Lizaveta Prokofyevna and 3 daughters: Alexandra, Adelaida, and Aglaya, and the Ivolgins with a drunken delusional father and a struggling family that includes Nina, Gavrila (Ganya), Varvara, and Kolya (a delightful teenager and loyal friend to the Prince).
One theme of the book is the issue of Christ as man versus God. In the painting, “Christ’s Body in the Tomb” by Hans Holbein, Christ is rendered simply as a man who had died after tremendous suffering. The painting had a profound effect on Dostoevsky when he saw it in Basel, and the novel seems to consider the question: “What if Christ was merely a man?” - Namely, someone capable of setting an example of ideal human behavior but without the ability to redeem mankind. In the story, the Prince has tremendous pity for Nastasya Filippovna, but he is not able to redeem her. The Prince has difficulty differentiating love from pity, and in the end cannot bring himself to leave Nastasya whom he pities and follow Aglaya whom he loves.
Greed for money also plays a major role in the story. Most of the characters are perpetually jostling over money while the Prince is happy to give away part of his inheritance to a group of young nihilists who (ironically enough) are materialistic enough to dream up a scheme to defraud him of it. In a another memorable scene, Nastasya throws the 100,000 rubles Rogozhin has raised to outbid Ganya for her hand in marriage into the fireplace and taunts Ganya to pull the bundle of notes from the fire.
Throughout the novel, the childlike candor of the Prince is contrasted to the falseness and pretense of 19th century Russian society. Being open and childlike, the Prince is loved by the children around him when he is living in Switzerland. However the candor of childhood usually is lost by adulthood, and the Epanchins and Ivolgins are constantly trying to impress everyone around them with their contrived social status. Lizaveta Prokofyevna worries about settling her daughters (somewhat like Mrs. Bennett in “Pride and Prejudice”). Overall, the female characters in this story are characterized by their unpredictable capricious behavior – especially Nastasya and Aglaya. Aglaya alternately encourages and rejects the Prince. Even the consumptive nihilist Ippolit is shown to be hypocritical when he intentionally botches his own suicide by failing to prepare the gun properly.
I wanted to like this novel more than I did. Its parody of 19th century Russia (socialites and nihilists alike) and the saintly indecisiveness of the Prince in his interactions with Nastasya and Aglaya are no match for the brooding introspection of the murderous student Raskolnikov. If you can only bring yourself to read one novel by Dostoevsky, make it “Crime and Punishment.”
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes