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 Lvovich Tolstoy Lev Lvovich Tolstoy Count Lev Lvovich Tolstoy (; 1 June (Old style: 20 May) 1869 – 18 October 1945) was a Russian writer, and the fourth son of Leo Tolstoy. Lev Lvovich, whom his father once called "Leo Tolstoy, Junior" was a fairly well known and respected belletristic author and playwright in pre-Revolutionary Russia. Although he had enjoyed good relations with his parents, by the 1890s Lev Lvovich had come to doubt his father’s religious and moral teachings, eventually becoming an ardent monarchist and Russian patriot. While living in exile after the Russian Revolution in Sweden, he became a vocal