The Idiot is a novel by the 19th-century Russian author Fyodor
Dostoevsky. After his great portrayal of a guilty man in Crime and
Punishment, Dostoevsky set out in The Idiot to portray a man of pure
innocence. 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 consequences of placing such a unique
individual at the centre of the conflicts, desires, passions and egoism
of worldly society, both for the man himself and for those with whom he
becomes involved.