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The I d io t A n Interpretation TWAYNE’S MASTERWORK STUDIES Robert Lecker, General Editor The Idiot A n Interpretation VICTOR TERRAS TWAYNE PUBLISHERS • BOSTON A Division of G. K. Hall e3 Co. Twayne’s Masterwork Studies No. 57 Copyright 1990 by G. K. Hall 6c Co. All rights reserved. Published by Twayne Publishers A division of G. K. Hall ÔC Co. 70 Lincoln Street Boston, Massachusetts 02111 Copyediting supervised by Barbara Sutton. Book production by Janet Z. Reynolds. Typeset in 11/14 Sabon by Compset, Inc., Beverly, Massachusetts. First published 1990. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 (he) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 (pbk) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z 39.48-1984. (S)™ Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Terras, Victor. The Idiot, an interpretation / Victor Terras. p. cm. — (Twayne’s masterwork studies ; no. 57) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8057-9412-3 (alk. paper). — ISBN 0-8057-8133-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881. Idiot. I. Title. II. Series. PG3325.I33T47 1990 90-32544 891.73'3— dc20 CIP Content# N ote on the References and Acknowledgments Chronology: Fyodor Dostoevsky's L ife and Works 1. 2. 3. Historical Context The Importance of the Work Critical Reception A Reading 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. The Notebooks to The Idiot The Evidence from Dostoevsky’s Correspondence Personal Elements in The Idiot The Literary Subtext Composition The Narrator The Psychological Backdrop The Moral Level The Metaphysical-Religious Level Various Novelistic Devices N otes and References Selected Bibliography Index N ote on the Referenced and Acknow ledgm entd The only authoritative edition of Dostoevsky’s works is Polnoe sobranie sochinertii v tridtsati tom akh (Leningrad: Nauka, 1972—). Planned in thirty volumes, it is nearly complete. The text of The Idiot is in volume 8 of this edition; the notebooks to The Idiot are in volume 9 . 1 have used the introductory arti cles and notes found in this edition in my chapters on critical reception, the notebooks to The Idiot, and the literary subtext. I have used Constance Garnett’s translation for my English text (New York: Dell, 1962). I chose Garnett’s over other trans lations given in the Bibliography because her Victorian English is closer to Dostoevsky’s Russian than more recent translations. I also feel it is the best translation from a stylistic point of view. Parenthetic references to the text of The Idiot give the page number(s) of the English text first and then those of the Russian edition (i.e., 420/315). All references to the notebooks are my translations of the Russian edition. The secondary literature on Dostoevsky, and on The Idiot in particular, is massive. A small fraction of it was used in this study. Only a few of the most important Russian studies have been identified in the bibliography and are referred to in the text. vii Lithograph o f Fyodor Dostoevsky by V. D. Falileev, 1921. Chronology: Fyodor Dodtoewkyd Life and Work* 1821 Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky born in Moscow 30 October, the second son of Mikhail Andreevich Dostoevsky, a doctor in charge of the gynecological ward of the Moscow Marian Hospital for the Poor. 1837 His mother, a gentle and pious woman, dies. 1837—1843 Attends the School for Military Engineers in St. Peters burg, where he is a good student. A voracious reader, he is a loner, respected but not liked by his classmates. 1839 His father dies in June of a stroke, according to the of ficial death certificate. There are rumors that