"The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky: In 1867, one year after the publication of "Crime and Punishment," a 46-year-old Fyodor Dostoevsky was riddled with debt, fighting a gambling addiction, and trying to cope with the death of his three-month-old daughter. Desperate for money, he took advances on his next novel, beginning to write before he even knew how the story would end. He had one guiding vision. He wanted to portray a perfectly beautiful man. In the midst of all this turmoil, Dostoevsky produced "The Idiot," a brilliant examination of innocence in an unforgiving world.

After spending four years in Switzerland being treated for epilepsy, Prince Lyov Nikolayevich Myshkin is returning to Russia to start a new life. The 26-year-old has no real friends or family to speak of, and all his earthly possessions are carried with him in a little bundle. He's traveling to St. Petersburg to see a distant cousin, Madame Epanchin, even though his letters to the woman have gone unanswered. Myshkin, an innocent amongst innocents, has no intention of asking the wealthy woman for money or assistance, he's only visiting because he thinks it's the proper thing to do. If she truly is family, it's his duty to see if he can be of any service to her. Aw, that's just Myshkin being Myshkin.

On the train to Petersburg, the Prince meets Parfyon Rogozhin, a disgraced merchant's son who's also returning home. Rogozhin stole money from his father to purchase diamond earrings for Nastasya Filippovna Barashkov, a breathtakingly beautiful woman with a checkered past. The scheme to win her heart with jewels fell flat, and when his father found out, Rogozhin fled for his life, squandering his remaining money on drunken revelry before falling into a lengthy period of sickness and brain fever. During Rogozhin's recovery, his father died, leaving his son an enormous inheritance, upwards of two million rubles. Rogozhin is returning to collect his money and take another swing at winning the unattainable Nastasya Filippovna.

Myshkin and Rogozhin become fast friends, the latter feeling very protective of the poor innocent prince. Their conversation is overheard by a petty clerk named Lebedev, who quickly ingratiates himself into their company, hanging on Rogozhin's every word and professing to know all about Nastasya Filippovna. When the train reaches the station, Rogozhin bids farewell to Myshkin, promising to help him get established in town as soon as he gets his money. Rogozhin and Lebedev leave together, joining forces in pursuit of the fair Nastasya Filippovna, while Myshkin sets off for the Epanchin household.

General Ivan Fyodorovich Epanchin and his wife Lizaveta Prokofyevna live in a luxurious mansion with their three daughters, Alexandra, Adelaida, and Aglaia. They first mistake Myshkin for a common beggar or swindler, but his childlike charm soon wins them over, with the General even promising to help find Myshkin an office position.

The jovial scene is cut short with the arrival of the one and only Nastasya Filippovna. The great beauty has important business to discuss with the General and his secretary, Gavril Ardalionovich Ivolgin. It seems the General's good friend, Afanasy Ivanovich Totsky, raised Nastasya Filippovna as his own daughter after her parents were killed. But Totsky was hardly a saint, seducing the young girl, robbing her of her virtue. Now a grown woman, Nastasya Filippovna is beginning to assert herself, threatening to ruin Totsky's plans to marry General Epanchin's eldest daughter, Alexandra.

In order to pave the way for the impending marriage, General Epanchin and Totsky plot to bribe Nastasya Filippovna into marrying Gavril Ardalionovich, a handsome young man of modest family who would be willing to accept his new bride in exchange for a hefty dowry. Everything seems ready to roll until Nastasya Filippovna meets Myshkin. Not used to being around such a noble soul, she is at once taken with the Prince, asking his advice in the matter, agreeing to abide by his word. Myshkin, painfully in love with Nastasya at first sight, tells her not to marry Gavril Ardalionovich, much to the chagrin of the would-be groom and the co-conspirators.

Things are complicated further when Rogozhin shows up, professing his love for Nastasya Filippovna and promising to give her 100,000 rubles for her hand in marriage. She won't agree to anything until she sees the money, although she says she'll give an answer that night at her birthday party, inviting everyone to attend. The ensuing scene at the party is spectacular, ranking with my all-time favorites. But I'll leave that for you to experience on your own.

The book is divided into four parts, totaling 564 pages. That brief little intro I provided only covers the first section, so that should give you some idea of the novel's scope and complexity.

In Prince Myshkin, Dostoevsky succeeded in his attempt to portray a "perfectly beautiful man." Myshkin is a Russian Christ, embodying all the qualities Dostoevsky valued most in man, namely altruism, compassion, integrity, loyalty, and, yes, innocence. He's willing to sacrifice himself for others, no matter the consequence. Yet Myshkin's simplistic nature and guileless character brand him an idiot in the eyes of the world around him. Only an idiot would be so kind and gentle.

Unlike Rogozhin, who's driven by physical lust, or Gavril Ardalionovich, who is merely out for financial gain, Myshkin loves Nastasya Filippovna with an asexual compassion, completely innocent in thought and action. Nastasya Filippovna also loves Myshkin, but, being a woman of a sordid past and sensual pleasures, she can't bear the thought of corrupting him, feeling entirely unworthy of his love. Myshkin's blind devotion to Nastasya Filippovna, who briefly agrees to marry the Prince before running off to rejoin Rogozhin, endangers his safety and destroys his chance for a happy life with Aglaia Epanchin, a lovely young woman who struggles with her own love for Myshkin, finally agreeing to be his wife only to have their dreams dashed in a dynamic denouement.

And what would a Dostoevsky novel be without an examination of death and god? Most of the existential debate here is driven by Ippolit, a frail, sickly lad succumbing to tuberculosis who has a penchant for political revolution and suicide. He's clearly a frontrunner of the nihilists depicted in Dostoevsky's later masterpiece, "The Possessed."

I'm not going to lie, some parts of "The Idiot" are slow. The urgent deadlines confronting Dostoevsky during its creation limited the amount of editing and rewriting he could do, leaving certain portions of the book, especially in Parts Three and Four, a bit wordy. But the overall work is still spectacular. Myshkin, Rogozhin, and Nastasya Filippovna deserve to be placed among the great characters in all Literature. Nastasya Filippovna is my personal favorite. The book crackles with life whenever she's on the page. Her recovery from sexual abuse forces her to the brink of insanity, as she spirals out of control between violent extremes of love and hate, culminating in a tragically predictable ending.

Myshkin is witness to it all, quietly observing and awkwardly interacting, suffering the pain of others' sins. There is no justice or salvation for the innocent man. There never is.

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