The Idiot

By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Richard Pevear - translator, Larissa Volokhonsky - translator

Narrated by: Peter Batchelor

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 is the only recording of Pevear and Volokhonsky's translation of Dostoevsky’s classic work. This audiobook is masterfully narrated by Peter Batchelor. Produced and published by Echo Point Books & Media, an independent bookseller in Brattleboro, Vermont.

©2001 Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (P)2024 Echo Point Books & Media, LLC

Right translation - fatal flaw

Everything is fine here, except the narrator was apparently never told how to correctly pronounce Nastasia Philipovna. As a result, I find that I cannot listen to this performance.

Wonderful translation, narration is lacking

This translation of The Idiot is much better than the Garnett version I have read. Unfortunately, the narrator of this audiobook attempts to change his voice for each character, but does so inconsistently, making it difficult to follow who is actually speaking during any of the lengthy dialogue between multiple characters. Additionally, I don’t agree with some of his choices of inflections for the characters’ utterances based on the descriptions by the author.

Genius

While not as good as the Brothers or Crime and Punishment, it is still a phenomenal book. The world lost a lot when he died young.

the idiot - a very short review.

this was one of the most magnificent books I've ever read (heard) the narrator was very very good. the life he gave the characters he did admirably.

Incredible book, weird narration

I adore this novel and translation and would defo recommend everyone read it, but the way the narrator does voices and pronunciations is intolerable, I had to return it