The Idiot

An Apple Books Classic edition.

Bold, romantic, and emotionally explosive, The Idiot follows a kindhearted prince whose sincerity is so rare, the people he encounters don’t know whether they should adore him or destroy him.

When Prince Myshkin returns to Saint Petersburg after years in a Swiss sanitarium, his openness and kindheartedness unsettle a society ruled by power and money. Drawn into the orbit of two women—brilliant, wounded Nastasya Filippovna and spirited Aglaya Epanchin—he finds himself at the heart of a perilous rivalry.

With daring psychological insight and disarming flashes of comedy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky examines what goodness looks like when it’s caught between desire and society’s pressure to conform. The Idiot reveals how easily innocence is mistaken for weakness and how steep the cost can be for those who keep believing in love.