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The Idiot
- Narrated by: Peter Batchelor
- Length: 30 hrs and 46 mins
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Publisher's Summary
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.
What listeners say about The Idiot
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- James
- 2019-10-22
Idiotic Characteristics: Divine and Human
Incredible tale of how humanity is almost perfected through the struggles and fits of epilepsy; only to be succumbed by the rush and complications of Russian society.
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- Kevin Wigglesworth
- 2021-02-04
Thought provoking.
The translation is easy to understand, the narrator does an excellent job of voice variation to distinguish each character. Dostoevsky dwells on some details more than seems necessary and less on others than would be of interest. It is a very thought provoking book... a view into Russian culture and faith, with occasional aspects of his own life weaved into the story.
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- Charles Bourgeois
- 2023-05-16
Thought provoking
Good story and a fine translation. I didn’t like the narration: the falsettos were strident and distracting. The few French phrases were incomprehensible.
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- Joseph Granata
- 2023-06-19
Narrator has poor diction
In general, I think the narrator doesn’t enunciate consonants enough. Moreover, I found it very hard to follow the dialogue of certain characters due to the mumbling voice he chose for them. I had to put this title down in chapter 15 (of 69) because I was getting so frustrated while listening.
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