The Brothers Karamazov: Worlds of the Novel

Twayne's Masterwork Studies #83

by Robin Feuer Miller

Fyodor Dostoevsky completed his final novel " The Brothers Karamazov "in 1880. A work of universal appeal and significance, his exploration of good and evil immediately gained an international readership and today remains harrowingly alive in the face of our present day worries, paradoxes, and joys, observes Dostoevsky scholar Robin Feuer Miller. In this engaging and original book, she guides us through the complexities of Dostoevsky s masterpiece, offering keen insights and a celebration of the author s unparalleled powers of imagination.Miller s critical companion to "The Brothers Karamazov" explores the novel s structure, themes, characters, and artistic strategies while illuminating its myriad philosophical and narrative riddles. She discusses the historical significance of the book and its initial reception, and in a new preface discusses the latest scholarship on Dostoevsky and the novel that crowned his career."

Genres: Literature, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Russia

156 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Robin Feuer Miller is the Edytha Macy Gross Professor of Humanities and professor of Russian and comparative literature at Brandeis University.

Reviews

[Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

For Miller, expositing the The Brothers Karamazov is like describing a piece of music: it is a "novel of rhymes", "a polyphonic novel par excellence." Using another vivid metaphor, she says the novel is like a palimpsest, in that there are layers of meaning piled on top of each other. Miller moves through the novel in narrative order, summarizing each of these interconnections and related meanings and bringing in biographical details about Dostoevsky where relevant.

[Andrew Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great companion to Dostoevsky's masterpiece. Really digs deep into the novel and expounded on various themes and symbols throughout the book.

For a true fan of Brothers Karamazov, this book is a MUST!

[Banbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book of literary analysis is excellent. It demonstrates how each episode and each character evokes other episodes and characters, showing the interconnectedness of everyone and everything in the novel. The close reading shows how seemingly disparate events are similar to each other, and create a kind of cascading slant-rhyme that can be followed through the book, creating an almost musical effect. Robin Feuer Miller at times states that there are more avenues of analysis than are explored in her book (which is intended as an "introduction" (p. 131) to The Brothers Karamazov). I would eagerly read any more of her examinations and thoughts on Dostoevsky's work.

[Reuben Woolley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this alongside is an excellent way to go about reading the Karamazov Brothers, as long as you don’t see it as gospel. Miller is entirely aware of the shortcomings of trying to spell out Dostoevsky’s “meaning” for you, so offers a concise and readable, but most importantly complex reading of the book, and in responding to her and returning to the text itself, you’re encouraged to build your own response in a personal and enjoyable way.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect companion to Brothers K, especially if you are not reading the novel as part of an academic course. Four chapters, one for each of the four books in the novel. There are no spoilers beyond the book under discussion, so you can read along as you proceed through the novel. The analysis is very high quality.

[Ravi Nuxoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful elucidation of what Dostoevsky was trying to say in The Brothers Karamazov .

[David Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone familiar with the name Dostoevsky already knows how complex a writer he was. However, reading Robin Feuer Miller's companion to his masterwork, The Brothers Karamazov, it soon makes one wonder how an author could weave together such an intricate, complicated, and yet cohesive novel. In what is part murder mystery, part psychological thriller, part melodrama, and part theological tract, characters, ideas, and events meet and ricochet off each other in an ever-shifting swirl of literary polyphony. The novel fully shows Father Zosima's belief that all things are connected, as each character is affected by the words of another, though, usually unknowingly.

Miller's book begins with a brief background on nineteenth century Russia. Russians at this time regarded literature as one of the highest forms of expression because it was one of the few ways real thoughts, no matter how subversive, could get by the censors (assuming they were surreptitiously conveyed). It's always nice to bear in mind this important advantage of literature.

After that, the book moves back and forth from partial summary to analysis. Since this is more of an introductory book than anything else, there are several issues left either barely touched upon or skipped over entirely. It does place quite a bit of focus on the major sections of the book—the Grand Inquisitor, the parable of the onion, Ivan's visit/hallucination from the devil—and these discussions will definitely help the Dostoevsky-inclined reader (as it helped me).

It's easy to oversimplify aspects of the novel, such as equating Ivan Karamazov with the intellect, Dmitri Karamazov with passion or the heart, and Alyosha Karamazov with the spirit. However, as the book states, each character contains at least a tiny seed of each of these elements, and they all hold the struggle of good versus evil in their hearts. They all feel the Karamazov baseness while retaining the ability for salvation. And, of course, it is Alyosha who has the ability to evoke that salvation in all the characters, especially his brothers.

Perhaps one of the most interesting discussions the book contains is that of how closely related actions are to potentialities. The prime example of this is when Dmitri comes close to forcing a woman to sleep with him in order for him to help pay off her father's debts. He eventually decides against this course of action and gives her the money. But, how close does this suggest the person who would go through with this and the person who would strongly consider going through with this are? It seems a more tenuous line than one would first think.

Just as so many things in The Brothers Karamazov act as double-edged swords with positive and negative aspects, Miller's companion works much the same. It will enlighten readers to the mind of Dostoevsky while raising a wealth of new questions.