The Idiot — Part IV — Chapter IV

Prince Myshkin returns late to find General Ivolgin waiting, tense yet ceremoniously polite, announcing he will leave Lebedeff’s house after a quarrel. Eager to maintain calm, Myshkin lets Ivolgin steer the talk to a “returned” book and then to 1812 reminiscences.

Ivolgin, in swelling self-importance, recounts how, as a child in Moscow, he became Napoleon’s page, witnessed intimate councils, advised against a Kremlin winter, and inspired a letter to Josephine. Myshkin, compassionate and cautious, neither confronts nor endorses the lies, allowing the general’s pride to run its course.

After departing, Ivolgin sends Myshkin a curt note severing ties, interpreting the prince’s kindness as humiliating pity. The narrator recalls that Ivolgin had also recently alarmed Lizabetha Prokofievna with hints about Gania, worsening his social disgrace.

That evening in the street, Colia confronts his agitated father, urging him to return home to Nina Alexandrovna. Ivolgin rambles, veering between shame and grandiose memories, then falters mid-whisper and collapses. Colia recognizes the medical emergency and cries that his father has had a stroke.