The Idiot
by Fyodor Dostoevsky (also rec’d by Grimes & Ralph Steadman )
Buy on AmazonOf Dostoevsky’s novels, most writers would cite The Brothers Karamazov — I adored it in adolescence, but could not bear rereading it in my thirties. I hadn’t the patience. But rereading The Idiot — the tale of the holy fool Prince Myshkin — as an adult rewarded the return. I was then writing my second novel and grappling with how difficult it is to write about goodness. Virtue in literature, as it is often in real people, can be downright off-putting. The secret, I discovered, was to put virt...
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"Of Dostoevsky’s novels, most writers would cite The Brothers Karamazov — I adored it in adolescence, but could not bear rereading it in my thirties. I hadn’t the patience. But rereading The Idiot — the tale of the holy fool Prince Myshkin — as an adult rewarded the return. I was then writing my second novel and grappling with how difficult it is to write about goodness. Virtue in literature, as it is often in real people, can be downright off-putting. The secret, I discovered, was to put virt..."
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"The next and possibly one of the strongest influences in my reading life is [Dostoevsky] – Tolstoy, of course, is at the top… One is just swept away from one incredible scene to another incredible scene. The scene when [Nastasya] lights a fire to burn up the bank notes in front of [Ganya] is almost like a [ True Story ] fiction, but in spite of it, the emotions of the scene make it so real."
Favorite books · radicalreads.com