The Brothers Karamazov

Rating:
Summary: Could be no less than five stars.
Review: I cannot compare this translation to the others. Like most mortals, I rarely read 800 page books more than once. However, I can attest that The Brothers Karamazov, as translated here, combines the moving human drama we expect from Dostoevsky with liberal dose of wry humor. The text seems modern and fresh, the circumstances and petty humor surrounding the characters so central to the human predicament that the story is timeless.

And what a story: It is (among many things) a satire of human corruption, a meditation on faith and religious institutions in an age of skepticism, a murder mystery involving love triangles, a courtroom thriller and in the end a testament to the goodness and bravery humans are capable of.

The story follows the lives of old man Karamazov, a filthy penny-pinching lech and his three sons. Each son represents a different side to the Russian character: Dimitri the spoiled lout (or the prodigal son), Ivan the tortured intellect, and Alyosha the spiritual searcher.

Alyosha, Dostoevsy says, is our hero. And he does represent a certain Christian ideal. He, in the end, stands for brotherhood and meekness in the face of temptation. These qualities, no doubt, are what Dostoevsky suggests will preserve and redeem the Russian nation. All around Alyosha is the carnage caused by people who are not awake to this truth -- and they wallow in suffering.

This book, the last Dostoevsky wrote, also presents an intricate political/religious landscape. We see Russia on the brink of socialist forment, and the church is not spared in the skepitism of characters like Ivan, who, in the 'Grand Inquisitor' chapter, presents the most spine tingling critique of organized religion I've ever read.

But, after 800 pages Brothers Karamazov is a book that burns so brightly and is so capable of moving a reader that the book's cost will seem paltry and the reader who comes through will find his or her knowledge of the human soul expanded. A+.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite book -- My favorite translation
Review: I just have to begin my review my urging everyone to read the review by "a reader from wichita, kansas." I had always heard that the great plains were marginalized, but I had no idea.....

This is a great book. Arthur Miller ("Death of a Salesman," "After the Fall," "The Crucible," etc) was a C student, until he had read The Brothers Karamazov--and he only started reading it because he heard it was a "murder mystery." After reading this book, he decided to become a writer. Elliot Rosewater, in Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" proclaims "Everything you need to know about life is in Brothers Karamazov--but damn it! It's just not enough!" Laura Bush--spouse of the person who will never be the president of me--said during an interview on National Public Radio that this was her favorite book, with her favorite part being the chapter entitled "Rebellion." I am a former communist revolutiony, current democratic socialist--and this is my favorite book, with my favorite chapter: "Rebellion."

I want to stress two points in this review. First, this is a hefty book. If you watched HBO's "The Sopranos," you'll know that the shrink Carmello met with suggested that Tony Soprano might be saved--but only if Tony was incarcerated for seven years, and read "Crime and Punishment." Karamazov is longer. Dickens was paid by the pound for his books--and he never wrote anything approaching this book.

BUT! For the love of the cowboy buddha, do not let the size of this book scare you away. Really. This is one of those russian novels with a bizillion characters, and a bunch of plots. Still, there are two chapters that really stand out. I can't urge you more strongly to get this book--and just read those two chapters. If you want to go further, and read the whole book--fab-bu. But here's what you should read: "Rebellion" and "The Grand Inquisitor." Both chapters are about thirty pages.

"Rebellion" involves a meeting with two of the three brothers, Alyosha, a monk, and Ivan, an agnostic intellectual. Ivan starts to explain his doubts about an omnipotent, just god to Alyosha, illustrating his points with examples of horrific abuse that some children have suffered. "What is message, the ultimate answer, the goal that requires such suffering?" he asks. Whether the novel provides an answer--that depends on the reader.

"The Grand Inquisitor" is the most famous section of this novel. Later in the same meeting (it was a long meeting), Ivan tells Alyosha about a story Ivan is writing, involving the dark days of the Spanish Inquisition. Jesus returns to Spain, and simply walks the streets, without saying a word. The Grand Inquisitor--famous for burning hundreds (in not thousands) of "heretics" at the stake has Jesus arrested. Later, the Inquisitor confronts Jesus in jail, and attacks Jesus for Jesus's "mistakes," and how the church has had to correct them....

An amazing, powerful story. I try to get all my religious friends to read this--but with limited success.

My last point is I have to take issue with the previous reviewer. I love this translation--I've read both translations, and find the language in this version much better, more beautiful. But who knows.....I can't imagine there is really a popular demand for rating versions of translations of Russian novels....

Just my personal opinion, I don't think "Crime & Punishment" holds up as well as the other books. Pevear & Volokhonsky's translation of "Deamons," though, that is also excellent.

All in all, while you may not yet have heard of Fyodor, you will soon; he is without doubt one of the most articulate young novelists to have come along in the last hundred & fifty years. In his hands, novels of events that took place in 1870s pre-revolutionary Russia read as though Fyodor were there--personally. I look forward to reading his future works, wondering if he could convey the same feeling for contempory events--like the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Rating:
Summary: Make sure to check different translations
Review: I read all the hype about Pevear's translation and decided to see for myself, reading large sections of the book and comparing sentence for sentence. Honestly, I liked the old Garnett translation better. The Pevear gets the style and tone a lot better, reads smoother, but on sections with deep emotional or religious signifigance seemed to miss the point, choosing phrasings and word substitutions that are confusing and hard to relate to. The style you can always reconstruct, but to read this book and not get a clear picture of the deep spiritual despair of some of the characters would be too bad.

Rating:
Summary: An Important Book
Review: I was a Russian literature major in college and, although I was assigned BK in at least one of my classes, I remember falling behind on the readings and guiltily faking my way through the exam. A few years out of college now, I recently took a couple weeks of vacation to do the appropriate penance for my earlier failure: to read what most people think is the masterpiece of Dostoevsky's literary career.

Those reading this presumably know the rough outline of the novel: a father and his three (possibly four) sons are introduced, their relationships are described and developed, the father is murdered, and one of the sons is accused and tried. On the surface, this plot doesn't sound like much, hardly enough for a book of this length, but Dostoevsky is so committed to painting rich characters and relationships that this novel becomes enormously complex.

My reactions to the novel were not primarily intellectual but emotional and spiritual. The overwhelming sense I got as I read BK was that here is an author and a book that take themselves seriously. Dostoevsky is not satisfied with anything trivial or small and does not shrink from such questions as the meaning of life or the existence of God. There is something profoundly refreshing and enjoyable about reading a book that casts its net wide.

Having completed the book, I also found it remarkably difficult to summarize what exactly it is "about." The simple answer is that it's a murder mystery. In reality, it becomes almost a parable of humanity: Ivan, the intellectual brother; Dmitry, the passionate brother; Alyosha, the pious brother; Smerdyakov, the vengeful servant/half-brother. Each bears responsibility for his father's murder; each struggles to learn how to live a life of meaning.

In the end, we each identify with the brothers Karamazov. We become them, and Dostoevsky asks us to share in their passions, their doubts, their faith, and their guilt. As a result, reading The Brothers Karamazov thoughtfully is, as many other reviewers have pointed out, a transformative experience.

Some authors write for themselves: to add to their reputation or to give birth to an artistic creation they've been gestating. Dostoevsky had plenty of talent and was subject to fits of inspiration, but he wrote only when he thought he had something important to say. In this novel, his subject is no less than humanity itself and, given the patience and effort to digest his writing, you will learn.

Rating:
Summary: Brothers Karamazov
Review: I will skip over the greatness of the Brothers Karamazov as a work of art; all the other reviewers point it out and a work that has survived a century obviously does not need me to sing its praises; and talk about Richard Pevear's and Larissa Volokhonsky's translation. I have tried to read the novel in several translations, starting with Constance Garnett's, and until now never managed to get through the novel. The translations were invariably too stiff, as though the translator was embarrassed by all the Russian carrying on and tried to make Dostoevsky read like an English novelist, toning the histrionics down, or too clunky and literal, chaining Dostoevsky to the Russian language and not allowing his meaning to be clear in English. The Pevear and Volokhonsky translation avoids both problems and is, to my mind, the best translation of the book available and one of the best translations of any book I have ever read. The translation catches the movement of Dostoevsky's prose in clear and very readable English; it even catches the humor in the book, something that most translations miss entirely. If you decide to read The Brothers Karamazov I would strongly recommend that you choose and read this translation.

Rating:
Summary: Yes...new and improved.
Review: I wondered at first if it was only the intervening years, but a comparison to my dad's copy confirmed this translation to be not only vastly more readable but far richer in the feel of the language.

Well worth revisiting...especially if it's been a while!

Rating:
Summary: the best translation
Review: I'm not going to comment on the novel itself - I don't think anyone just casually stumbles on a book so famous, you already know something about what you're getting into. But I have to say this translation is the best I've read. I started with the Signet edition and switched to this one about 1/3 of the way through, and the improvement was obvious. A friend was reading the Oxford edition at the same time as me, and I preferred this one to the Oxford too. I found this translation to be very lively, with natural and believable storytelling. It also had a lot of little sylistic oddities that the Signet translation didn't - I assume they tried to "polish" Dostoevsky's writing style at the expense of his interesting voice. So if you want to read Karamazov but don't know what version to buy, get this one.

Rating:
Summary: Overwhelmingly moved
Review: I've never loved any fictional character as much as i love Dmitri Karamazov and his brother, Aloysha. What's so amazing about this book is that you get a full involvment in the intensity of human relationships, whether it be between two people or within one character. The slightest subtleties of what it is to be human are successfully explored, and the result is overwhelming. Dostoevsky has an amazing understanding of existence, torment, joy, and psychology that just awes me. This is the richest, most moving book i have ever read, and that's based soley on the strength of Dostoevsky's characters. I'm completely and permanently altered by reading The Brothers Karamazov.

Rating:
Summary: For the faithful
Review: Just this week I finished The Brothers Karamazov as part of an AP English Literature and Composition class. While this book will take a great amount of time to fully digest, I think a review is an order.

I gave this book four stars because it is extremely well-written and the world has much to learn from it. I am working on a summary paper and notes right now, and I am continually coming up with new themes, ideas, angles, subjects, and motifs in the book. Dostoevsky had a lot to say at the end of his life, and he pours his whole being into this book. However, he had a lot to say and finished with a massive book 776 pages. Had I not been reading BK for a class, I am almost sure I would never have finished it. It takes a great deal of perseverance and interest to read it to the end, although you are well-rewarded with a new wealth of ideas, worldviews, and characters to ponder. I would recomment The Brothers Karamazov to those with a fascination for Russian literature, the justice system, and character study, as well as a lot of extra time!

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant but hard work!
Review: Let me start by saying, this is not an easy read. The first half of this very lengthy novel is pretty slow moving in places. The pace does pick up after this point so stick with it because this novel is masterly.

As with Dostoyevsky's other brilliant novel, "Crime and Punishment", "The Brothers Karamazov" is an incisive journey into the psychology of crime. But this is by no means the totality of the work. The span of this novel is immense covering topics as different as the fragility and security of the family, organized religion, the Russian class system, Russia's place in the world in the 19th century and just about anything else you could think of!

The novel primarily focusses on three brothers - Dmitri, Ivan and Alexei Karamazov, the sons of a lethario and self-proclaimed "buffoon", Fyodor. All three have been abandoned by their father at an early age but, for various reasons, all come together for a short period of time. Alexei, the youngest and least like his father, has found religion and joined a monastery. This provides a pivotal focus for much of the first half of the novel which, to some extents, is a doctrine about organized religion Russian style. This, I will admit, got a little tiring; the ideas may well have had relevance when Dostoyevsky was writing but seem to have lost their allure right now.

In particular we see the relationship between Alexei and the "Elder" Zosima who's homilies run for a full 50 pages worth of the novel. This side of the novel also has little influence on the main plot and, in my humble opinion, could be completely cut without detriment.

The focus on the relationship between the brothers and their father is, however, brilliant. Dmitri and his father end up falling in love with the same woman - Grushenka - a woman of rather dubious reputation. Dmitri, meanwhile, is also in love with a more upper class woman, Katerina who is also in a relationship with Ivan.

This double love triangle not only provides wonderful material for the insights into love, lust and jealousy, it also provides the background for the key event of the novel - the murder of Fyodor. The suspicion immediately falls on the eldest son, Dmitri, and much of the novel focusses on this and a subsequent trial.

This part of the novel which, is much the greatest, can be recommended without reservation. Yes it is a long, very long book but the range and depth of ideas, feelings and thoughts are quite remarkable. Set a couple of weeks aside and read this book.