The Idiot is anything but, yet his fellow boarders at Mrs. Smithers-Pedagog’s home for single gentlemen see him as such. The Idiot may say the wrong things at meals, but he's smart to live where he can speak his mind. A humorous collection of breakfast chats at a gentleman's boarding house run by a Mrs. Smithers. This is the first of John Kendrick Bang’s “Idiot” books.