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The Brothers Karamazov
Synopsis:
Fyodor Dostoevsky was the son of a doctor. His parents were hard-working, religious people, but poor. A brilliant career seemed open, but in 1849 he was arrested and condemned to death.
A member of a group of young men who met to read Fourier and Proudhon, he was accused of "taking part in conversations against the censorship ... and of knowing of the intention to use a printing press."
After eight months in jail, he was taken to be shot. Suddenly the prisoners were informed that His Majesty had spared their lives. His sentence was commuted to hard labor: four years of penal servitude in Siberia and some years in a disciplinary battalion.
In 1864 Dostoevsky lost his first wife and his brother. Though in terrible poverty, he paid his brother's debts. The author wrote at tremendous speed and is said to never have corrected his work, which is evident in many books, especially Crime and Punishment.
In June 1880 he made his famous speech at the unveiling of the monument to Pushkin in Moscow and was received with great honor. A few months later he died and a vast multitude of mourners came to the cemetery.
He is still probably the most widely read writer in Russia. In the words of a Russian critic, "He was one of ourselves, a man of our blood and our bone, but one who has suffered."
About the Author:
This book is one of a series of classics condensed for ESL students by Joseph Cowley. It took two years to reduce the original almost one million words down to about 161,000 and still maintain the integrity of the work.
Publisher's website: http: //sbprabooks.com/JosephCowley
Fyodor Dostoevsky was the son of a doctor. His parents were hard-working, religious people, but poor. A brilliant career seemed open, but in 1849 he was arrested and condemned to death.
A member of a group of young men who met to read Fourier and Proudhon, he was accused of "taking part in conversations against the censorship ... and of knowing of the intention to use a printing press."
After eight months in jail, he was taken to be shot. Suddenly the prisoners were informed that His Majesty had spared their lives. His sentence was commuted to hard labor: four years of penal servitude in Siberia and some years in a disciplinary battalion.
In 1864 Dostoevsky lost his first wife and his brother. Though in terrible poverty, he paid his brother's debts. The author wrote at tremendous speed and is said to never have corrected his work, which is evident in many books, especially Crime and Punishment.
In June 1880 he made his famous speech at the unveiling of the monument to Pushkin in Moscow and was received with great honor. A few months later he died and a vast multitude of mourners came to the cemetery.
He is still probably the most widely read writer in Russia. In the words of a Russian critic, "He was one of ourselves, a man of our blood and our bone, but one who has suffered."
About the Author:
This book is one of a series of classics condensed for ESL students by Joseph Cowley. It took two years to reduce the original almost one million words down to about 161,000 and still maintain the integrity of the work.
Publisher's website: http: //sbprabooks.com/JosephCowley
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Published February 26, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 29, 2018
Horay for Karamazov!
I definitely see why this is considered Dostoevsky's true masterpiece, though also why it isn't taught in high school. The long tale meanders through so many genres, from Saint's Life to philosophical discourse to family drama to murder mystery to social novel to legal fiction. It's often unpredictable, precisely because enough of the genres are played "straight" that, on a first reading, one never knows what will happen. And yet, the book is so beautifully structured that seeming digressions in the first half end up deeply influencing the second half. Questions about the nature of confession, of truth, of dealing with unresolved evils, and the duty of each human to take responsibility for everyone else aren't answered so much as answered, revised, questioned, interrogated, and looked at from the opposite angle. Yet this is all done through the larger-than-life dysfunction of three brothers: gentle Alexei, who idolizes his monastic teacher and seems destined to die a monk; conscientious, defiant Ivan, who is unable to accept the suffering God seems to have ordained for this world; and passionate Dimitri, who seems in many ways the most human of the three in his undisciplined wavering between faith and doubt, cruel pleasure-seeking and conscience. So while the novel presents many philosophical ideas, it is never dry, and it never breaks character. One is left with an image of desperate humans, clinging to their uncertain fragments of ideology and story, trying to build some semblance of a life that makes sense under the sun.
And, like late Dostoevsky at his best, it ends on a note of dogmatic, hopeful, Russian Christian sanity--but one that carries an ocean of dark, questioning undertones. "Horay for Karamazov," goes the refrain. Indeed, maybe it is true that the Karamazov name itself can be redeemed, that peace and righteousness may kiss. And yet, one can't help but notice the cliffhanger ending, and the way that so many questions are, even at the end, left unresolved.
The only disappointment is, at times, the translation. It's deeply readable, energetic, and (or so I'm told) generally faithful--but I read this alongside the Pevear / Volokhonski translation, and found the latter to be much more precise, interesting, and thought-provoking.
I definitely see why this is considered Dostoevsky's true masterpiece, though also why it isn't taught in high school. The long tale meanders through so many genres, from Saint's Life to philosophical discourse to family drama to murder mystery to social novel to legal fiction. It's often unpredictable, precisely because enough of the genres are played "straight" that, on a first reading, one never knows what will happen. And yet, the book is so beautifully structured that seeming digressions in the first half end up deeply influencing the second half. Questions about the nature of confession, of truth, of dealing with unresolved evils, and the duty of each human to take responsibility for everyone else aren't answered so much as answered, revised, questioned, interrogated, and looked at from the opposite angle. Yet this is all done through the larger-than-life dysfunction of three brothers: gentle Alexei, who idolizes his monastic teacher and seems destined to die a monk; conscientious, defiant Ivan, who is unable to accept the suffering God seems to have ordained for this world; and passionate Dimitri, who seems in many ways the most human of the three in his undisciplined wavering between faith and doubt, cruel pleasure-seeking and conscience. So while the novel presents many philosophical ideas, it is never dry, and it never breaks character. One is left with an image of desperate humans, clinging to their uncertain fragments of ideology and story, trying to build some semblance of a life that makes sense under the sun.
And, like late Dostoevsky at his best, it ends on a note of dogmatic, hopeful, Russian Christian sanity--but one that carries an ocean of dark, questioning undertones. "Horay for Karamazov," goes the refrain. Indeed, maybe it is true that the Karamazov name itself can be redeemed, that peace and righteousness may kiss. And yet, one can't help but notice the cliffhanger ending, and the way that so many questions are, even at the end, left unresolved.
The only disappointment is, at times, the translation. It's deeply readable, energetic, and (or so I'm told) generally faithful--but I read this alongside the Pevear / Volokhonski translation, and found the latter to be much more precise, interesting, and thought-provoking.
October 31, 2025
I got 2 pieces of advice before I read this. 1. Read the Constance Garnett translation; 2. Keep reading, nothing much happens in the first half of the book.
I'd tried to read a different edition 10 years ago. Those 2 pieces of advice got me to read this book in entirety. The first half is beautiful prose building characters. I'm not great at that stuff, so I appreciated the writing, but I'm glad I had the advice to keep going.
Ultimately, a great read.
I'd tried to read a different edition 10 years ago. Those 2 pieces of advice got me to read this book in entirety. The first half is beautiful prose building characters. I'm not great at that stuff, so I appreciated the writing, but I'm glad I had the advice to keep going.
Ultimately, a great read.
March 20, 2018
Well, it's very difficult for any book described as one of the best in Western literature to live up to its hype. For me, that was certainly true. I suspect the largest issue I had was my lack of understanding of, or, truthfully, any real interest in, the underlying sociopolitical issues. I'm glad I read it, just because of its place in Western lit, but I found it a bit boring.
March 27, 2016
Preferred it to Crime and Punishment- just about.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews