At such times I felt something was drawing me away, and I kept thinking that if I walked straight on, far, far away and reached that line where sky and earth meet, there I should find the key to the mystery, there I should see a new life a thousand times richer and more turbulent than ours … But afterwards I thought one might find a wealth of life even in prison.
Dostoyevsky has been on the brain lately, which means his unhappy character Prince Myshkin is always in the background, too, somewhere. I can understand his wish for “walking straight on” without stopping, trying to escape reality, his illness and eccentricity which separate him from the world. It’s the last line that makes it, though – finding life and liberty “even in prison.” And I think there is something even stronger than Stoicisim in those words, because he doesn’t just say life, but a wealth of life.
Does Myshkin find this wealth in the prison of his life? I don’t know, but his dream is beautiful.
Classics Considered 
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