The Idiot: Part One, Chapter One Summary & Analysis

It is November, and a train is pulling into St. Petersburg. In the third-class carriage, two rather similar-looking young men sit facing each other. One of them is 27 and has dark hair and a “mocking, and even malicious smile.” The other is around the same age and is wearing a hooded cloak that is certainly not warm enough for a Russian winter day. The man in the clock is blond and looks a little sickly, but his face is “pleasant.” He shivers and explains to his neighbor that he’s coming from Switzerland and had forgotten how cold it gets at home in Russia.

The blond man happily answers the dark-haired man’s questions, explaining that he has been away for more than four years receiving treatment for “some strange nervous illness” which causes fits. He is still not cured, and he can no receive treatment because the man who had been paying for it, Pavlishchev, recently died. The blond man tried writing to his “distant relation” in St. Petersburg, Mrs. Epanchin, but didn’t get a response, and thus was forced to come back to Russia. He admits that he doesn’t know where he’s going to stay once he gets to the city, and that the small bundle he is carrying with him contains all his possessions.

The blonde man also says he is not surprised that he didn’t receive a reply from the Epanchins, because they are so distantly related. A nearby clerk joins the conversation, someone the narrator describes as a “Mr. Know-it-all” who is always up to date on society gossip. Know-it-alls like him basically treat gossip as a profession. The blond man introduces himself to the clerk as Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin, and the clerk responds that he has never even heard of this name. The prince explains he is the last in his line.

The dark-haired man then introduces himself as Parfyon Rogozhin, and the clerk, astonished, asked if he’s the descendant of the non-noble Rogozhin who recently died, leaving 2.5 million rubles. Rogozhin rudely replies that he is, and then furiously adds that neither his mother nor his brother told him about the money. He also explains that before he died, his father almost killed him. Rogozhin admits that his father possibly had the right to be angry with him. When his father died, the telegram containing the news was sent to his aunt, an old widow who “sits with the holy fools” all day. The aunt took the telegram to a police station because she was too scared to open it. 

Rogozhin mentions Nastasya Filippovna, and the clerk exclaims that he knows her. He explains that she is a noblewoman who only associates with one man, a noble “landowner and big capitalist” called Afanasy Ivanovich Totsky, who is himself friends with General Epanchin. The clerk, who mentions that his name is Lebedev, proudly says that he “knows everything.” For a moment Rogozhin thinks that Lebedev is implying Nastasya Filippovna is engaged, and panics. However, Lebedev assures him that she remains unattached and no one knows anything about her.

Rogozhin wearily explains that this is always the problem with Nastasya. She has been living with Totsky, but now Totsky is 55 and planning to marry the most beautiful woman in St. Petersburg, so wants “to get rid of her.” Rogozhin explains that he bought diamond earrings for Nastasya with money his father had given him to pay off a debt on his behalf. His father went to Nastasya and pleaded to have the earrings back, and she threw the box at him. Rogozhin promptly took a train to Pskov, where he got so drunk that he passed out and spent the night unconscious on the street.

As the train pulls into the station, Rogozhin confesses that although he doesn’t know why, he “loves” Myshkin, and says he hopes that Myshkin will come and see him. He promises to buy the prince fancy clothes and “stuff your pockets with money,” at which point they’ll go to see Nastasya Filippovna together. Myshkin tells Rogozhin that he likes him too, “despite [his] gloomy face,” and that he is grateful for the offer of clothes, which he desperately needs.