The Notebooks for The Idiot

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Edward Wasiolek, Katharine Strelsky

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9780486820736
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism History & Theory
• Index: Literature

"This is an invaluable aid to the understanding not only of the finished work of art, but also of Dostoyevsky's strangely tortured yet confident creative process." — Modern Fiction Studies.
"Superbly edited by Edward Wasiolek and well translated (despite difficult problems of rendering) by Katharine Strelsky." ― The New York Times Book Review.
The central idea of The Idiot, according to its author, was "to depict a completely beautiful human being." More prosaically, the novel was intended to shore up Dostoyevsky's professional and financial state. The portrait of Prince Myshkin, a holy fool, was created in desperation amidst the squalid poverty engendered by the Russian writer's compulsive gambling. Dostoyevsky's entire future depended on the success of his next novel, which began as one story and ended as quite another.
After publishing the first part of The Idiot in The Russian Messenger, Dostoyevsky had no idea how to continue the story. The second part, in fact, is a quite different novel. The author's notebooks reveal at least eight plans for the tale, with numerous variations on each plan. A unique document of the creative process, this volume is illustrated by facsimiles of original pages from the notebooks, offering a rich source of information about the development of Dostoyevsky's enigmatic novel.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Introduction
• Translator’s Note
• The First Plan
• The Second Plan
• The Third Plan
• The Fourth Plan
• The Fifth Plan
• The Sixth Plan
• The Seventh Plan
• The Eighth Plan
• Notes on Part II of the Novel
• Notes on Parts III and IV of the Novel
• Name and Topic Index