The Idiot Audiobook By Fyodor Dostoevsky cover art

The Idiot

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The Idiot

By: Fyodor Dostoevsky
Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
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One of the most influential authors from Russia’s Golden Age, Fyodor Dostoevsky left behind a vast collection of prized literary works, including Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.

In The Idiot, Prince Myshkin possesses a childlike innocence and trusting nature that leave him vulnerable to abuse by those around him. Returning to St. Petersburg to collect an inheritance, Myshkin realizes he is a stranger in a society obsessed with wealth, manipulation and power.

Public Domain (P)2014 Recorded Books Classics Russia
Captivating Story • Deep Layers • Great Characterizations • Moving Examination • Amazing Performance
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The story of a naive, empathetic man returning to Russia dealing with society, politics, love and, tragically, insanity.

Great story

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I love his novels, they show how people have simply not changed like they think they have with the developments of technology.

Fantastic

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Dont get wrong I know this is a novel by one of the greatest writers of last century but overall I found the story plain and at sometimes boring. On the positive side the character development is amazing and also has a strong ending. I should note that This is my first Dostoevsky novel and I plan to follow up with Demons, hopefully a better suit for me. The performance of who is reading is amazing and got me hooked to the different characterizations, great work there.

Adventures of Prince Mishkin and friends

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The bad: it was easy to get lost in who is who because of character names. I had to read sparknotes to figure out who did what.

The good: despite knowing the basic outline well in advance, i was still surprised and moved at the story.

Much of the books characters are well developed, perhaps overly so.

It is clear that Dostoevsky has ideas about Religion in mind, but they are not what one would expect.

In no way grotesque nor vulgar, yet not a childs book at all.

Surprisingly good even though highly recommended

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I like how much the narrative style of the book changed throughout. Different parts of the book came across very differently because of the style it was written in.

There’s some parts that are slow, but then it’ll spike way up. Think of it like going to an all day sporting event. You walk around and explore the booths and the food, and then there’s a brilliant 30 minutes of qualifying. Then you wait a bit and then the event happens and it’s amazing! Repeat 1-2 more times.

Other minor things - as a monolingual American, it’s hard to track all of the four different Russian names given to the same character, so there’s some confusion on who is who throughout the book. A character guide would probably be good to look up.
Also, while the different voices for the different characters are great, they do suffer when you play the book at more than 1.2x speed, but that’s mostly to be expected.

Overall highly rated. Most of the book can be listened to while doing other things, but there’s some parts you’ll probably want to just sit and listen to.

Good listen. Some of it went over my head but I’m sure I learned something.

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19th-century Russia emerges in strongly dramatic scenes of humiliation among numerous characters suffering from love, hysteria, illness, kindness, ambition, and nihilism. In this novel, characters overtly say what ordinarily remains suppressed in social life.

Fantastic Scenes of Awkward Shame

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great translation. the story is captivating and very believable. Every chapter is filled with surprises.

amazingly unique story - brilliantly told

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I felt that more could have come from the story. but the narration is excellent.

great narration

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This book is so alive and deep and I think it will take me years to figure out all its layers. Totally brilliant and perfectly paced. I was not expecting to love it as much as I did

Surprisingly Amazing

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it's absolutely brilliant if you can follow all the characters, and it's narrated very well so absolutely no flaws IMHO.

well... it's Dostoyevsky, so it's brilliant

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