"Dostoevsky’s most personal and autobiographical novel, The Idiot tests the author’s views on goodness against the flaws of a power-hungry society.
Prince Myshkin, the novel’s central character, is good-hearted and pure. When he returns to St. Petersburg to collect a large inheritance after spending years in a Swiss sanatorium in treatment for epilepsy, it’s clear the intellectuals around him view him as simple and daft. On the way home, Myshkin meets the wealthy Rogozhin, whose obsession with the beauty Nastasya Filippovna draws Myshkin into a terribly tangled web of romance that anchors for the rest of the book. The many courtships and manipulations unfold against the backdrop of a society marked by the consequences of power-seeking and money, which press up against Myshkin: the Christ-like pinnacle of innocence.
In his powerful and tragic conclusion, Dostoevsky takes readers to the brink of his most pressing and evergreen question: Can goodness persist under these conditions?"
"Pevear and Volokhonsky may be the premier Russian-to-English translators of the era. (The New Yorker)
Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky’s masterful translation of The Idiot is destined to stand with their versions of Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and Demons as the definitive Dostoevsky in English.
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 26-year-old Prince Myshkin, following a stay of several years in a Swiss sanatorium, returns to Russia to collect an inheritance and “be among people”. Even before he reaches home, he meets the dark Rogozhin, a rich merchant’s son whose obsession with the beautiful Nastasya Filippovna eventually draws all three of them into a tragic denouement.
In Petersburg, the prince finds himself a stranger in a society obsessed with money, power, and manipulation. Scandal escalates to murder as Dostoevsky traces the surprising effect of this “positively beautiful man” on the people around him, leading to a final scene that is one of the most powerful in all of world literature.
This audio edition of The Idiot, masterfully narrated by Alan Turton, is the only recording of Pevear and Volokhonsky's translation of Dostoevsky’s classic work. It was produced and published by Echo Point Books & Media, an independent bookseller in Brattleboro, Vermont with engineering by Raconteurs Audio LLP.
Copyright (c) 2001 Translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Recorded by arrangement with Everyman’s Library, an imprint of The Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. (P) (2025) Echo Point Books & Media, LLC"
"This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.
Considered to be one of the most crucial passages and subplots to Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel 'The Brothers Karamazov', this story is a parable told by Ivan to his younger brother Alyosha, a novice monk, about the return of Christ during the time of the Spanish Inquisition. When Christ begins performing miracles, he is soon arrested by those of the Inquisition. 'The Grand Inquisitor' has influenced many literary and popular culture works as an exemplary philosophical and religious work in its own right and the themes presented in the parable are a driving force for the character development of Ivan and Alyosha throughout the rest of 'The Brothers Karamazov.'"
"This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.
One of the world's greatest novels, Crime and Punishment is the story of a murder and its consequences—an unparalleled tale of suspense set in the midst of nineteenth-century Russia's troubled transition to the modern age. In the slums of czarist St. Petersburg lives young Raskolnikov, a sensitive, intellectual student. The poverty he has always known drives him to believe that he is exempt from moral law. But when he puts this belief to the test and commits murder, there results unbearable suffering. Crime and punishment, the novel reminds us, 'grow from the same seed.'"
"This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.
Notes from Underground is a study of a single character, and a revelation of Dostoyevsky's own deepest beliefs. In this work we follow the unnamed narrator of the story, who, disillusioned by the oppression and corruption of the society in which he lives, withdraws from that society into the underground. On the surface this is a story of one man's rant against a corrupt, oppressive society, but this philosophical book also explores the deeper themes of alienation, torment, and hatred."
"This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.
The Brothers Karamazov is a passionate philosophical novel that enters deeply into the ethical debates of God, free will, and morality. It is a spiritual drama of moral struggles concerning faith, doubt, and reason, set against a modernizing Russia. Dostoyevsky composed much of the novel in Staraya Russa, which is also the main setting of the novel."
"This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.
The Gambler is a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky about a young tutor in the employment of a formerly wealthy Russian General. The novella reflects Dostoevsky's own addiction to roulette, which was in more ways than one the inspiration for the book: Dostoevsky completed the novella under a strict deadline so he could pay off gambling debts."
"This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.
When Prince Myshkin returns to Russia after years abroad, his innocence, honesty, and compassion set him apart in a society driven by ambition, intrigue, and greed. Dubbed “the idiot” for his simplicity, he soon finds himself entangled in a web of passion and rivalry that will test the very limits of his idealism. Torn between two women—gentle Aglaya and the tormented beauty Nastasya Filippovna—Myshkin’s quest to live with kindness collides with the darker forces of desire, manipulation, and human weakness.
In this unforgettable masterpiece, Dostoevsky explores the tension between purity and corruption, faith and doubt, love and destruction. At once a psychological drama and a profound moral inquiry, The Idiot is both heartbreaking and thought-provoking—a novel that asks whether true goodness can survive in a world that often misunderstands it.
Perfect for readers of classic literature and fans of deep, character-driven stories, The Idiot remains one of the greatest novels ever written."
"This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.
Notes from Underground is a study of a single character, and a revelation of Dostoyevsky's own deepest beliefs. In this work we follow the unnamed narrator of the story, who, disillusioned by the oppression and corruption of the society in which he lives, withdraws from that society into the underground. On the surface this is a story of one man's rant against a corrupt, oppressive society, but this philosophical book also explores the deeper themes of alienation, torment, and hatred."
"This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.
The Gambler is a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky about a young tutor in the employment of a formerly wealthy Russian General. The novella reflects Dostoevsky's own addiction to roulette, which was in more ways than one the inspiration for the book: Dostoevsky completed the novella under a strict deadline so he could pay off gambling debts."
"This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.
One of the world's greatest novels, Crime and Punishment is the story of a murder and its consequences—an unparalleled tale of suspense set in the midst of nineteenth-century Russia's troubled transition to the modern age. In the slums of czarist St. Petersburg lives young Raskolnikov, a sensitive, intellectual student. The poverty he has always known drives him to believe that he is exempt from moral law. But when he puts this belief to the test and commits murder, there results unbearable suffering. Crime and punishment, the novel reminds us, 'grow from the same seed.'"
"This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.
The Brothers Karamazov is a passionate philosophical novel that enters deeply into the ethical debates of God, free will, and morality. It is a spiritual drama of moral struggles concerning faith, doubt, and reason, set against a modernizing Russia. Dostoyevsky composed much of the novel in Staraya Russa, which is also the main setting of the novel."
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