Which Dostoevsky novel features the epileptic prince Lev Myshkin?

The Idiot features the epileptic prince Lev Myshkin.

Dostoevsky’s novel The Idiot was published in serial form from 1868 to 1869. Prince Myshkin returns to Russia after spending years abroad for medical treatment and becomes involved with Nastasya Filippovna, Parfyon Rogozhin, and Aglaia Yepanchina.

Myshkin is compassionate, honest, and unusually trusting. His behavior contrasts with the pride, jealousy, vanity, and social calculation around him. Dostoevsky used the character to examine what might happen when an exceptionally good person enters a corrupt and competitive society.

The title is often misunderstood as a simple insult. In the novel, “idiot” reflects how other characters view Myshkin’s innocence and lack of worldly cunning, not a clinical diagnosis. The book also draws on Dostoevsky’s own experience of epilepsy, although Myshkin is a fictional character rather than a direct autobiography.