The Idiot The Idiot The Idiot (pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform ) is a novel by the 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published serially in the journal "The Russian Messenger" in 1868–9. The title is an ironic reference to the central character of the novel, Prince (Knyaz) Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, a young man whose goodness, open-hearted simplicity and guilelessness lead many of the more worldly characters he encounters to mistakenly assume that he lacks intelligence and insight. In the character of Prince Myshkin, Dostoevsky set himself the task of depicting "the positively good and beautiful man." The novel examines the
Lev Naryshkin Lev Naryshkin Lev Alexandrovich Naryshkin (; also known as Léon Narychkine) (5 February 1785 - 1846, Naples) was a Russian aristocrat who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. He was the son of Alexander Lvovich Naryshkin and his wife Maria Alexeyevna Senyavina, daughter of Admiral Alexei Senyavin. This made Lev brother to Elena Aleksandrovna Naryshkina and first cousin to Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, who fought in the Napoleonic Wars and the conquest of the Caucasus. Naryshkin was educated at home by private tutors under the French abbé Nicol. He entered the court as a page and became a chamberlain on 15