Fedor Dostoieffsky [Fyodor Dostoevsky]; Frederick Whishaw [trans.]

The Idiot [A Russian Realistic Novel]

London: Vizetelly & Co., 1887. Very Good. Item #49454

London: Vizetelly & Co., 1887. First English Language Edition. Octavo (19.5cm); publisher's olive-green cloth lettered in red and black, teal coated endpapers; 480pp. Moderate wear to cloth margins, spine cocked, hinges starting, contemporary ownership ex libris of an F.J. Thomas with their signature to half title page; Very Good overall. "Vizetelly's Russian Novels" at head of title page.

The rare first English language appearance of one of Dostoevsky's darkest, most personal and philosophical novels, originally serialized in Russia between 1868 and 1869. "The Idiot" was the author attempt to portray a "positively beautiful man," the eponymous idiot Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, and the results of placing such a creature in the middle of a novel filled with human conflict, desires, and egotism.

Last seen at auction in 1911 and fewer than twenty examples in OCLC as of August 2026.

Price: $5,000.00

Status: On Hold