DE IDIOOT / DOSTOJEWSKI

"Prince Lyov Nikolayevich Myshkin returns to Russia after a long absence. Myshkin suffers from epilepsy (just like Fyodor Dostoyevsky himself) and is prone to periods of blackouts. This has been treated with some success in Switzerland. The Myshkin family line is said to end with him and his cousin.

On the train to Saint Petersburg, Myshkin meets and befriends the dark and enamoured Rogozhin. The latter tells the prince about his passion for Nastasya Filippovna, a beautiful woman with a bad reputation. Myshkin arrives at the house of General Yepanchin, who is married to the only other living member of the Myshkin line. Myshkin learns that Ganya, a young go-getter and secretary of the General, wants to marry Nastasya for her dowry. The prince feels an irresistible desire to meet her after hearing about her and even more so when he views a picture of her in the General's office.

At Nastasya's name day party, Myshkin sees Rogozhin arrive drunk and offer the young woman a large amount of money to follow him. The prince perceives the despair of Nastasya and proposes to her in order to save her from her situation. She, perhaps believing the Prince's offer stems from pity, or that she is not worthy of his love, flees with Rogozhin.

Rogozhin later tries to kill his friend with a knife, but is hindered when, due to the stress of the situation, Myshkin falls into an epileptic seizure.

Over the course of the novel, Myshkin grows closer to the General's daughter, Aglaya, but Nastasya's actions culminate in a final meeting between the two women at Darya Alexeyvna's home, where Aglaya confronts Nastasya but soon flees. Myshkin moves to leave with Aglaya, but stops when Nastasya questions the fact that he would leave with her and she faints into his arms. He makes arrangements to marry Nastasya for fear she will return to Rogozhin. On the day of the marriage, however, Nastasya again runs away with Rogozhin, who then kills her.

The novel ends with Myshkin and Rogozhin lying together by the body of Nastasya: Myshkin comforts the raving Rogozhin; Rogozhin is sentenced to labor in Siberia; Aglaya rushes into an unhappy marriage with a man who claims to be a Polish count."

JONGELINGENSCHAP : CITAAT

"Het is idioot en gek om te zeggen, maar ik ben er van overtuigd dat er heel veel mensen van deze soort zijn geweest [die de mooie liefde najagen]en nog zijn, vooral vrouwen, wier liefde tot vrienden, mannen, kinderen ogenblikkelijk zou vervliegen als hun verboden werd er in het frans over te spreken."
p260-261

JONGELINGENSCHAP / TOLSTOJ

Laatste deel van autobiografisch drieluik...
...
These sketches, a mixture of fact and fiction, provide an expressive self-portrait of the young Tolstoy and hints of the man and writer he would become.