«The Idiot» in Russian with a Parallel Translation

The Idiot is a novel by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, first published in 1868. The main character, Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin, is a very kind, frank and bright person who spent lots of time in Switzerland, undergoing treatment for epilepsy. Upon returning home, he found himself at the center of events. Dostoevsky deliberately "placed" his hero in a conflicted egoistic society in order to see how Myshkin would function in such an environment.