A young prince returns to Petersburg from a Swiss sanatorium, gentle, epileptic, possessed of a goodness so radical it bewilders everyone it touches. This 1869 novel attempted something its author knew was nearly impossible: to depict a truly beautiful soul and test it against the world's greed, vanity, and violence. Myshkin sees clearly into every heart, yet his clarity saves no one, least of all the tormented Nastasya Filippovna, whose fate darkens the book like a wound that will not close. Written feverishly in serial installments, the novel's energy reflects a mind at the limit of its powers. The question is devastating: what becomes of innocence in a fallen world? The answer is that the world does not spare what it cannot comprehend.