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
Myshkin (surname) Myshkin (surname) Myshkin (Мы́шкин) is a Russian name, also transliterated Mishkin and commonly Miskin, although the latter two words have other meanings, both in Russian and in other languages. The ancient Jewish temple in Jerusalem in Hebrew is believed to be the root of the name with the Hebrew word pronounced "mishkan". There are people with the surname Miskin around the world who have formed a large user group on Facebook. There are Miskins in Australia, England, India, Indonesia, Canada and the United States including Mormons in Utah. "Myshkin" is the possessive case of the diminutive of the word 'mouse'.