Dmitry’s review of The Brothers Karamazov > Likes and Comments

Ah, my favourite novel, wellspring of my identity.

I believe to some degree The Brothers Karamazov grow up in a world without women, for better or mostly worse. Katya however... Well.

How do you suppose the narrative would continue, if Fyodor had lived to write his planned sequel, to which the Brothers were but a foregrounding story?

Camilla wrote: "…How do you suppose the narrative would continue, if Fyodor had lived to write his planned sequel, to which the Brothers were but a foregrounding story?"

I read somewhere that Dostoevsky had planned to continue The Brothers Karamazov. It was supposed to be a story about Alyosha, for whom monasticism was just the first step. Alyosha would become a revolutionary, participate in an assassination attempt on the tsar, and end up on the scaffold.

Did you read in the original or translated(if yes, who's?)

I literally have been waiting decades to read this book. I bought the copy a couple of decades ago! 2025 is the time. Pevear-Volokhonsky translations are the best. C+P by them riveted me.

Mohan wrote: "Did you read in the original or translated(if yes, who's?)"

I read it in the original. However, the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is considered the best. They also translated Tolstoy's Anna Karenina

Brian wrote: "I literally have been waiting decades to read this book. I bought the copy a couple of decades ago! 2025 is the time. Pevear-Volokhonsky translations are the best. C+P by them riveted me."

Absolutely agree. Enjoy it. By the way, I really love the poetry of Larissa Volokhonsky's brother, the poet Anri Volokhonsky.

Yes - I suspect it won't be wholly unlike Fyodor's own run-in with the Petrashevsky circle.

There are rumors he makes up with Grushenka, if you'll believe it. And some people have said Kolya gets too much screen time for the importance he has in the plot (something I think is arguable), and that he would have a role of greater significance in the sequel.

There was a time I became obsessed with the question of good and evil, and I tried to solve it much like one would solve a mathematical theorem...

Camilla wrote: "And some people have said Kolya gets too much screen time for the importance he has in the plot (something I think is arguable), and that he would have a role of greater significance in the sequel. ..."

Yes, I think Kolya Krasotkin will play a significant role in the plot. In about fifteen years, they’ll gather with their friends to "suffer for humanity." Otherwise, why would Alyosha’s "God-man" speech to the twelve little apostles be included at the end of The Brothers Karamazov?

What makes it complicated is that while leaving room for more, Alyosha's speech is also fully complete within the novel as 'putting in the ground' Dostoevsky's position on the question of moral and political developments in Russia and Europe at the time.

It would most definitely inform what comes later, but also marks the end of the novel rather well.

What do you think, which faction would Koyla join in the ensuing years?

Camilla wrote: "What do you think, which faction would Koyla join in the ensuing years?"

Kolya? I think he might join the Bolsheviks. Although there's room for doubt.

How so? What other fates might await him?

Camilla wrote: "How so? What other fates might await him?"

Bolsheviks first, disillusion later. He’s too smart and too kind to stay in the system.