The Idiot

“One can't understand everything at once, we can't begin with perfection all at once! In order to reach perfection one must begin by being ignorant of a great deal. And if we understand things too quickly, perhaps we shan't understand them thoroughly.”

― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot

The Idiot (1069) by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a novel that recounts the life of Prince Myshkin, a young man of twenty who comes back to Russia after having spent the past few years in Switzerland for the treatment of a severe epileptic condition. On his return, he finds himself torn between the love of two women—Nastasya and Aglaia—both involved, consecutively, with greedy and corrupt Ganya. An alien in a society obsessed with money, power, and manipulation, Myshkin eventually turns mad.