A Karamazov Companion: Commentary on the Genesis, Language, and Style of Dostoevsky's Novel

by Victor Terras

    The text of The Brothers Karamazov is removed from English-speaking readers today not only by time but also by linguistic and cultural boundaries. Victor Terras’s companion work provides readers with a richer understanding of the Dostoevsky novel as the expression of a philosophy and a work of art.
     In his introduction, Terras outlines the genesis, main ideas, and structural peculiarities of the novel as well as Dostoevsky’s political, philosophical, and aesthetic stance. The detailed commentary takes the reader through the novel, clarifying aspects of Russian life, the novel’s sociopolitical background, and a number of polemic issues. Terras identifies and explains hundreds of literary and biblical quotations and allusions. He discusses symbols, recurrent images, and structural stylistic patterns, including those lost in English translation.

Genres: Literature, Nonfiction, Russia, Literary Criticism, Russian Literature

500 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 1981

Reviews

[Kevin Gross · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful companion to a disappointing novel. Terras' knowledge of Dostoevsky's writing, his research into it, is exhaustive and impressive to say the least. The first section of the book, rather oddly labeled an Introduction, is a terrific survey of many topics relevant to understanding the novel. The second section, Commentary, highlights and comments on the text of the novel, line by line.

Two things would have made this book more helpful to me. The first would be a chapter-level discussion of the text, rather like Spark Notes does. As written, there's a gap between the summary analysis in the Introduction and the line-by-line Commentary.

The second is an updated edition that ties to newer translations, such as the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation that I read.

[Laurel Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book!