The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

It's a brilliant novel, and it involves a murder, but I'm not sure I'd call it a mystery or thriller. The crime is entirely secondary to exploration of character, and there is no solution in the model of normal mystery fiction. That being said, its an excellent read, and one of the great novels not written in English.

This novel has moved and engaged me in a way only a masterpiece can. Mr. Dostoevsky, God bless your soul, from the bottom of my heart I thank you for The Brothers Karamazov.

I cant begin to sum up how good a book this is. It is probably the most enjoyable book Ive ever read in my life, and ive read many. This is a completely psychological book that shows the inner workings of man and his soul, or lack thereof. It is the tale of three(four) brothers, all of whom nothing alike, and their horrible father. I dont want to spoil anything for anyone because it is far too good a book to be giving away anything about it, but if you are going to read one novel for the rest of your life, this is it. I cant speak of how well the translation is compared to others since this is the only one I have read, but I thought it was very enjoyable. PLEASE do yourself a favor and read this book.

Smerdyakov didn't do it. He confessed to Ivan, it's true, but why should we take his word for it? Perhaps it was Ivan and only Ivan who was the true object of his hate, and everything that Smerdyakov did in his life up to and including his taking it was meticulously calculated to push Ivan over the edge. Like Smerdyakov, the anonymous narrator and biographer of Alexei Karamazov shams a falling sickness - in this case a fall from omniscience - precisely at the terrible instant of Fyodor Karamazov's murder. He shows us Mitya pulling the brass pestle from his pocket while crouching under his father's bedroom window, then all of a sudden a dotted line gets in the way, blocking our view, and the next time we see Dmitri, he is dashing for the garden wall with the servant Grigory hot on his heels. This blatant crevice in the narrative shouts to us in no unclear terms, "You do not, cannot, and will not ever know what happened here!" And we, miserable gossips and frustrated peeping toms that... Read more

The novel itself is brilliant -- one of the best. To praise the novel would be redundant and pointless. I want to talk about the translation. The Pevear translation has garnered a lot of attention and praise. I don't know Russian, so I can't speak to the original. It may be that Pevear translation an accurate representation of Dostoevsky's prose. What I can say is that, as a novel, this version of Brothers Karamazov is dense, leaden and awkward. Many previous reviewers have suggested reading the Garnett translation instead. Anyone who loves Russian literature owes Garnett a debt: she was the first to translate just about any Russian writer you can think of (pre 1950) into English: Tolstoy, Turgenev, Chekhov, Gogol, Dostoevksy, etc. Critics have complained -- most famously Vladimir Nabokov -- that Garnett was prone to skipping words and using summary liberally. There are revisions that correct this (see the Norton Critical Edition, revised by Ralph E. Matlaw) but there is anothe... Read more

The Karamzov family came with a reputation of living life to its fullest with a reckless abandoned to wholesomeness and integrity towards another's well being. This manifested itself from the father and yet through three brothers in different ways. Alexi had a strong belief in God. Life in the monastery had taught him that man is guilty before all people on behalf of all and for all human sins. In recognizing this Alexi sees not that man has committed a crime but that his nature leaves him capable of sinning, which renders the ultimate hallmark of faith in God's forgiveness. Ivan's educated man left him with the ability to accept God from a perspective that the concept was likely an invention of man. He could not accept Gods world because his scientific mind could not fathom the parallel mind of Euclidian and those opposite minds of faith ever coming together. This exception leaves the reader with a third alternative, which is a notion that parallel arguments could exist harmoniously w... Read more

anyone who doesn't read the brothers karamazov is depriving himself of one of the most intimate explorations of the human psyche and soul ever to grace this planet. i am 23 and a college student in her last semester reading this for a Religion Studies class. in all honesty, when i first began to read this, in my own immaturity and literary misjudgment, i thought to myself "wow, what a contrived piece of crap. where's the naturality of the discussion of God and human nature?", but wow, was I wrong. yes, in some ways the book makes a head-on charge stating very clearly the 'moral of the story' so to speak. but DAMN does Dostoyevsky (the author) give it to you! i'm on Chapter three and just VIBING with Ivan's monologue on the human soul and the suffering of man... it's crazy. perhaps my review is premature, but this book gets an unwavering 5 thumbs up! a must have to any curious mind's book collection. thanks Religion Studies class! :-)

This book has been called the climax of Dostoevskii's career, the greatest novel of all time, etc. And not without reason. Dostoevskii reaches into our very souls and pulls out our darkest fears. The story introduces a sensous and passionate family. The three brothers, Dmitri, Aloysha, and Ivan, represent the Russian psyche: the sensual, the fanatical mystic, and the atheist, respectively. Their father is a lecherous buffoon (incidentally, the scene between Fyodor Karamazov and the holy priest Zosimov is one of the funniest in all of literature). Their father is a disgrace and an embarrassment to the family. In this way Dostoevskii neatly sets up the ensuing murder: he involves Dmitri and Fyodor in a sordid love triangle. People owe each other money. The typical mafia setting. Dostoevskii uses this to explore the terrible questions of fratricide and the question of God. Another theme in the book, which upset many proponents of liberal democracy, is the inevitabl... Read more

Anyone interested in the central question facing mankind will find `The Brothers Karamazov' an essential guide. That question--on man's capacity for responsibility and the proper role of the state and religion--is posed throughout the story in dialogue and events, and is framed neatly in a 20-page section where Ivan presents a poem titled `The Grand Inquisitor' to his brother Alyosha. The chapter that bears that title (Book V, Chapter V) is a masterpiece in itself and should be studied for its narrative technique alone. But the ideas it presents are so immense, so mind-blowing and inspirational, that literary criticism is not sufficient. Indeed, `The Brothers Karamazov' should not be classed merely as a novel--it is a book of philosophy, theology, and sociology as well that ranks with the greatest documents in those disciplines. There is a fictitious plot, of course, and the characters in the story are some of the most unique in all of literature, so it is rightly praised as a novel... Read more

Before you buy this edition, use Amazon's Search/Look Inside feature to read the first few pages of all available translations so that you can buy the one you like the most. Buying a bad translation will ruin your experience. I bought Andrew MacAndrew's because the text just flows. Now a review of the book itself. The main story is good and most of the characters are outstanding, but I'm not a Christian and the book's Christian theme put me off. Besides, Alyosha was such a boring hero, all he did was smile a lot and utter a line once in a while. For some reason, Alyosha never had any internal monologue and it was hard for me to know him. I wonder why the hero was boring while the villain, Fyodor, was so entertaining, even though he could also be annoying. But Dmitry and Ivan were the best characters by far. They may not represent the ideals of Christianity like Alyosha. Who cares? They were much more human and my heart went to them.

This is a tremendous story, but you already knew that because of the author. But this version is awful because the font is either 7 or 8 CPI. Considering that this is almost an 800-page book, your vision will be permanently worse if you read this entire book. I understand that it is a long story that they need to keep short, but it's really unhealthy to read a typeface so small.

The everyman library edition has very small font. It is a pain to read it.

"All religions are based upon this desire and I am a believer." He comes as close as any author to expressing truth in fiction.

Many reviews discuss the novel itself, so I'll just comment on this particular edition: My only complaint with this edition is its tiny margins. This, of course, is not an issue for the outside margins, but because the print is so close to the binding, I had to actually pull the two halves of the book in opposite directions to read the print near the gutter. It sounds like I'm nitpicking, but this book is by no means a quick read. Pulling on a book for a couple of hours every night is more tiring than I would have expected. I read a bit of the new edition -- translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky (Link:)The Brothers Karamazov -- in a bookstore today, and it was so comfortable, that I don't think I fully realized what I had been missing until then. Other than that, and a few typos here and there, it's not a bad edition if you get a cheap one. I bought mine at a thrift store for 35 cents, so I can't complain. This qualifies as a book worthy of a nice edition, and if I were to r... Read more

Careful...I was looking for the award-winning Pevear/Volokohonsky translation for the Kindle. It is NOT among the current translations available for the Kindle (as of 3/12/08). (I downloaded the samples and compared the first few paragraphs to my paperback Pevear/Volkohonsky copy) If the first paragraph is any indication of quality, pass on the versions $0.99 or less, which start with an awkward run-on sentence bad enough to make me think the translator was not very facile with english.

Brothers Karamazov is a novel which represents life in very detail. Dostoevsky has studied human mind and its nature very closely and in his novel he has revealed in very detail about human mind. He has talked about love and how it transforms you, he has written about jealousy and what it leads to and how it burns. He is the most alive and enthusiastic writer I have across, I don't see a trace of passiveness in his language and I feel his energy is so active, so lively and so passionate. If one has to talk about life then Dostoevsky novel is the perfect material which reveals different dimensions of life. One can miss Gita; one can miss Ramayana but should not miss Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov. It happens very rarely that the expression of life is revealed through words and this novel takes you on a journey called life.