Brothers Karamazov (Translated by Constance Garnett)

I read this story years ago in print form, reading it on the Kindle made it worth reading again. It’s so much easier tracking the story line, not loosing the thread, as the author play’s with each character’s name. They can be either or, so it can get a little crazy keeping them together till the end.

self . . . this is third copy . . . the best read maybe there ever has been . . . but my comp lit degrees are speaking, so . . . thanks again . . . I will not loan this book again . . . thanks again and I am boring you . . . william wilson dallas texas

What a classic. All readers and thinkers should read this book. The struggle of humanity and spiritual belief is beautiful.

I read “The Brother’s Karamazov” after reading two other novels by Dostoyevsky – “Crime and Punishment” and “The Gambler”. On the surface, “The Brother’s Karamazov” reads like a discussion about personal morality in the context of society and in some ways is like ‘Crime and Punishment” in this. However, in reading the novel, I kept feeling that the religious aspects of the novel were only on the surface. I saw that this novel was actually political and had as its overarching context a discussion of the nature of society. That is what is the effect of different types of society on the people who inhabit them. I saw that two types of society were laid out. The first is the type of hierarchical autocratic or at least elitist society that is of the type that was extant in Russia in Dostoyevsky’s time. This is set forth clearly in the “Grand Inquisitor” chapter. Morality here is defined from above and imposed on he population. People are seen as incapable of forming a society in any other way as they are inherently self-interested and chaotic. The novel presents this both in a Christian and anti-Christian context. In the Christian context, Ivan Karamazov poses the question of how society can function there is no belief in in an immortal soul. In the anti-Christian context, Ivan presents the story of the Grand Inquisitor in which he portrays a society in which a political establishment utilize the appearance of a Christian society to impose hierarchical control. The second is described by the elder Father Zorsima as an egalitarian society in which people come together and society is built from the bottom up out of the mutual respect and concern between people. I don’t know if my interpretation is correct but if it holds water than this was a very radical novel for its day. The society of the Grand Inquisitor could be well be seen as a description of the autocratic Russian empire. The ending of the novel is a scene in which Alexey Karamazov urges a group of boys to go forth and interact in the world. His urgings sound as almost a call to arms to go forth and build the egalitarian society that Father Zorsima describes as ideal. My edition of this book has an introduction which indicates that another novel was intended to follow up on this one and carry on with some of the same characters. Alexy was to become a radical and be involved in an assassination according to this. This would seem to support my feeling that this was a political novel in contrast to the “Crime and Punishment” which was more about the individual and personal morality.

Excellent product, Excellent service.

Dostoevsky is a classic.

The text/translation is the same as one of the very best translations of this work, the reader’s voice, pronunciation, and inflections are quite good, bordering on excellent, and it’s somehow not expensive. Get it, it’s a cheap but very good audiobook.

I am an avid reader - I just love it! But I feel Dostoyevsky could have told this story using half the words he used.

This is Dostoyevski best book. He was such a brilliant author and a deaply religious man. One wishes to have known him. Buy this book, that Somerset Maughan said was one of his 10 most beloved books.

I have read a lot of literature from Dickens to Voltaire, and I wouldn't put Dostoyevsky in that category. This book is mostly town folk gossiping about each other with an unremarkable murder mystery thrown in. Yawn!