No Subject

Having read crime and punishment, the brothers karamazov and notes from undergound prior to picking up The Idiot, my expectations were sky-high and to my great pleasure they were not disappointed. True to form dostoevsky delivers some of the most profoundly powerful, intelligent, vivid and entertaining prose ever written. I think the idiot is more readable than crime and punishment and more cogent, thematically, than brothers karamazov. Of all his novels i think it is the one i will come back to most often, a masterpiece, weaving a hugely complex web of ideas into a superbly realised human tapestry. There is so much in it, im sure, that i havent even begun to understand.

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Originally Posted by marc

Having read crime and punishment, the brothers karamazov and notes from undergound prior to picking up The Idiot, my expectations were sky-high and to my great pleasure they were not disappointed. True to form dostoevsky delivers some of the most profoundly powerful, intelligent, vivid and entertaining prose ever written. I think the idiot is more readable than crime and punishment and more cogent, thematically, than brothers karamazov. Of all his novels i think it is the one i will come back to most often, a masterpiece, weaving a hugely complex web of ideas into a superbly realised human tapestry. There is so much in it, im sure, that i havent even begun to understand.

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You have a very good point there. Most people consider "The Idiot" a minor work of Dostoesky. True it may not have the pervasive social and ethical values and relentless human concerns of his more illustrous novels. But it rises to poignant psychological levels and is characterized by a narrative tempo unmatched by his other works. Among his minor novels " The Gambler" has this breathtaking tempo.

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Originally Posted by marc

a masterpiece, weaving a hugely complex web of ideas into a superbly realised human tapestry.

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The tapestry is more closely woven than in Dostoevsky’s monumental 'The Brothers Karamazov', and provides many more surprises than does his racy novel, 'The Gambler'. Full of ethical complexities, ‘The Idiot’ becomes better the more you reflect. I’m still intrigued by the prominence given to untainted Vera Lebedev and playboy Evgenie Pavlovitch at the end of the novel.

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Originally Posted by ramana moorthy

True it may not have the pervasive social and ethical values and relentless human concerns of his more illustrious novels.

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Doesn’t it? I couldn’t agree less. The idiot's actions and words beam out like a prison searchlight on the morality and social conventions of the Russian middle class.

I hope to start a new thread soon giving my reading of its exquisite ending.