Through the pages of "The Idiot," Dostoevsky once again has the opportunity to present us with the image of Russia during his time and to satirize personalities, things, and situations in his own ingenious way.

This novel, which features the naively desperate and emotionally vulnerable yet not "idiotic" Prince Myshkin as its central hero, was entirely written away from Russia, during a time when the great writer wandered hopelessly in Western Europe, trying to cope with his dire financial situation, the epilepsy that had tormented him for years, his rejection as a writer by the critics of his time, and the hostility of the Tsarist regime.

His hero is led to destruction, not because he lacks intelligence, but because he is so emotionally vulnerable that he crumbles under the weight of intolerable reality.

Using his imagination, Dostoevsky places his characters in extreme conditions, centered around the idealized figure of Myshkin, the fateful beauty Nastasya Filippovna, and the passionate Parfyon Rogozhin, revealing the depths of their souls and reaffirming the timelessness of his work once again.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]