Suffering for art

It's been a bit of a marathon. 15 days and 652 (classic Penguin font) pages. In fact sometimes it's felt a little like

Holiday reading

being back at Uni studying English Literature, calculating the number of pages per day I'd need to read before a particular tutorial. But today I finally completed Dostoevsky's The Idiot in preparation for seeing ...some trace of her, a play it inspired at the National tomorrow.
And although I confess I did skip over a page or two when characters fell into lengthy espousing of Dostoevsky's ideas I did actually enjoy it far more than I thought I would.
I don't pretend that I understood it all in great depth  and there were times when I hated it.  In completing it I certainly felt like I went on a journey with the central character Prince Myshkin or the idiot as he is perceived.
The plot is far too complicated to describe in any simple and meaningful way. There are so many characters Dostoevsky gives you a list on the opening page. Myshkin is often referred to in critiques as a Christ like figure whom the society of the day were unable to appreciate. I'm not entirely convinced by this interpretation. Certainly he behaves in a manner far more honourable than most of the characters but then his character does skate very close to the same characteristics of madness that many of the other characters seem to possess. In short my impression of 19th century middle class Russians after reading The Idiot is that they are all essentially a bit bonkers.
If you strip out a lot of the characters and scenic plot routes it is essentially about two men who love the same woman. Dostoevsky skillfully builds a sense of foreboding but the final denouement was faintly disappointing.

Some Trace of Her at the National Theatre

I've read reviews of the play, in which Ben Whishaw portrays the Prince, which say it is incomprehensible without having read the book but then a friend has watched it 'blind' so to speak and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Tomorrow night will be the acid test.
...some trace of her is described as a multi-media performance which has a voice in the back of my head screaming 'arty wank'. Indeed there is a video trailer on the website. But regardless of how much of the story and themes I comprehend and how much is art for arts sake, it is seeing Whishaw on stage again that I am most excited about.
It was his casting that made me want to see  it in the first place and consequently read the book.
I'm feeling a kind of post exam elation at the moment having completed my homework and having my free time back again. I'm hoping all my prep is rewarded.