With his eyes riveted on the Bulgarian edition of The Idiot, my father sternly advises me not to read it: ‘Destructive, diabolical, and sticky. It’s over the top, you won’t like it, forget about it.’ His dream was for me to escape ‘The Bowels of Hell,’ as he referred to our native Bulgaria. In order to help make that desperate dream come true, the best thing was for me to develop my innate taste for clarity and freedom… in French, needless to say, since he had introduced me to the language of La Fontaine and Voltaire. I obviously disobeyed the paternal advice, as usual, and dove headfirst into Dosto. Awed, overwhelmed, swallowed up.

Born in Bulgaria, Julia Kristeva was able to read Dostoyevsky’s work in the original Russian as a teenager. Having gone on to become one of the major European intellectual figures of our times, in this book, she provides a deep and stimulating analysis of an author who has influenced her life.