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The Idiot Book Summary and Study Guide

Detailed plot synopsis reviews of The Idiot


Prince Myshkin is an epileptic returning from a sanitarium. On the train, he meets Rogozhin and they become friends. Myshkin visits his distant relatives, the Epanchins, a fashionable family. General Epanchin gives him a job and he fascinates Madame Epanchin and her daughter, Aglaya, with his innocence and awkwardness.
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The Prince boards with Ganya, a schemer who wants to marry Aglaya for her money. Myshkin pities Natasya; in their innocence they are two of a kind. He offers to marry her, but as she is worried about ruining his name, she runs off with Rogozhin. Shortly afterward, she runs away from Rogozhin and disappears. Rogozhin assumes she has run to Myshkin and with Ganya plots the Prince's death.

Meanwhile, Aglaya has fallen in love with Myshkin, but his bizarre talk disturbs the family and when he falls into a fit at a party they ban him from the house. Aglaya also grows increasingly jealous of Natasya. The two women meet and Aglaya resolves to give up the Prince.
The review of this Book prepared by Nicole Rivette




An slow-minded but insightful man, named Price Myshkin, returns to Russia to claim his inherited fortune after spending years in Switzerland for medical treatment. Soon he is entranced by two young women: one is young and beautiful, the other beautiful and depraved. In his innocence, Prince Myshkin is unknowingly led into all sorts of predicaments by these two women, including a rivarly with another man, named Rogozhin. Eventually, both women leave him: one runs away after she is refused marriage by Prince Myshkin, and the other runs away out of depraved capriciousness and is soon murdered by the Prince's rival, Rogozhin.
The review of this Book prepared by Jeff Schoneman



Chapter Analysis of The Idiot

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Plot & Themes

Tone of book?    -   depressed    -   thoughtful Time/era of story    -   1600-1899 Romance/Romance Problems    -   Yes Is this an adult or child's book?    -   Adult or Young Adult Book Unmarried Love Triangle?    -   Yes

Main Character

Gender    -   Male Profession/status:    -   wealthy Age:    -   20's-30's Ethnicity/Nationality    -   Russian Unusual characteristics:    -   Super sensitive soggy jelly muffin

Setting

How much descriptions of surroundings?    -   5 () Asia/Pacific    -   Yes Asian country:    -   Russia City?    -   Yes City:    -   dangerous Small town?    -   Yes Misc setting    -   fancy mansion    -   moving train

Writing Style

Sex in book?    -   Yes What kind of sex:    -   vague references only Amount of dialog    -   mostly dialog    -   roughly even amounts of descript and dialog

Books with storylines, themes & endings like The Idiot

Fyodor Dostoyevsky Books Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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