Fyodor Dostoevsky inspiration for his writing. They continued their trip through Germany, visiting Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Heidelberg and Karlsruhe. They spent five weeks in Baden-Baden, where Dostoevsky had a quarrel with Turgenev and again lost much money at the roulette table. The couple travelled on to Geneva. In September 1867, Dostoevsky began work on "The Idiot", and after a prolonged planning process that bore little resemblance to the published novel, he eventually managed to write the first 100 pages in only 23 days; the serialisation began in "The Russian Messenger "in January 1868. Their first child, Sonya, had been conceived in Baden-Baden, and
Alyosha Karamazov moral agent, playing a passive role in the events of the novel. Rufus W. Mathewson states that Alyosha Karamazov is a more robust positive hero than Prince Myshkin. He argues that Alyosha is closer than Myshkin to being an active spokesman for conservatism, citing Alyosha's most impressive success as helping Dmitri. He describes Alyosha as relying on forgiveness, kindness and natural justice, rather than attempting to change the social order. Alyosha is named after Dostoevsky's son of the same name, who was born in 1875 but died in 1878 of epilepsy. Because of this Dostoevsky imbued Alyosha with qualities and