How long is The Idiot?

The Idiot is 656 pages, or approximately 216,511 words. At an average reading pace, it takes about 16 hours to read.

What genre is The Idiot?

The Idiot is categorized as Literary Fiction, Psychological fiction. It was published in 1869 by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

When was The Idiot published?

The Idiot was published in 1869 by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Name: The Idiot
Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky

Published 1869 · 656 pages · 216,511 words · about 16 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction, Psychological fiction

How hard is The Idiot to read?

The Idiot scores 59 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 62 out of 100: 19th-century Russian society vocabulary, medical terminology around epilepsy, religious language. Translation smooths some difficulty.
Sentence structure: 72 out of 100: Long, recursive sentences, especially in dialogue. Characters interrupt each other; conversations spiral. Dostoevsky's characteristic breathlessness.
Abstraction: 70 out of 100: Sustained meditation on goodness, beauty, and whether they can survive in the world. Philosophical discussions emerge naturally from drama.
Information density: 65 out of 100: Dense social comedy alongside psychological intensity. Many characters and subplots but clear main trajectory.
Narrative indirection: 55 out of 100: Third-person narration with clear chronology. Some flashbacks and digressions but relatively straightforward structure.
Symbolic density: 70 out of 100: Holbein's Dead Christ, the epileptic aura, Nastasya's portrait—symbols carry significant weight.
Ironic distance: 50 out of 100: Dostoevsky's sympathy for Myshkin is evident. Social satire is present but earnestness predominates.
Resolution withholding: 40 out of 100: Clear, devastating resolution. The ending leaves little ambiguous about the fates of main characters.
Structural complexity: 60 out of 100: Four parts with many subplots converging on the central tragedy. Complex but not experimental in structure.

How The Idiot is regarded

The Idiot holds a literary regard score of 90 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.