The Idiot - Hardcover

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Author), David McDuff (Translator), William Mills Todd (Introduction by)

A Dostoyevsky classic about suffering and sickness, now a Penguin Clothbound Classic designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith

Inspired by an image of Christ's suffering, Dostoyevsky set out to create a protagonist with 'a truly beautiful soul' and to trace the fate of such an individual as he comes into contact with the brutal reality of contemporary society. The novel begins when the innocent epileptic Prince Myshkin - the 'idiot' - arrives in St Petersburg and finds himself drawn into a web of violent and passionate relationships that leads to blackmail, betrayal and eventually murder. This is a stunning new Clothbound Classics edition of Dostoyevsky's great novel, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith and translated by David McDuff. These delectable and collectible Penguin editions are bound in high-quality colorful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design.

Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Author Biography

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) was a Russian novelist, journalist, and short-story writer whose novels Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov rank among the greatest of the nineteenth century.

David McDuff (translator) has translated many works of nineteenth-century Russian literature, including works by Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Leskov for Penguin Classics.

William Mills Todd III (introducer) is a professor of Slavic languages at Harvard.