When the gentle and naïve Prince Myshkin returns to Russia after years in a Swiss sanatorium, his innocence collides with the cynicism and corruption of high society. In The Idiot, Dostoevsky explores the ideal of a truly good man in a fallen world—an examination of moral purity, mental illness, and the devastating consequences of misplaced love. A profound and complex masterpiece, it remains one of the great achievements of world literature.