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Summary: Take great care in choosing your translator.
Review: If you like reading books that make you think about things like why we are here on Earth, is there a God, and if so how could he let things be the way they are, then you may enjoy reading this book. *If you pick up just any copy, you may get a poor translation which is a crime against Dostoyevsky. I read a "Penguin Classics" version translated by David Magarshackin 1958. While I think he did a good job, he seemed to use a lot of the same descriptions over and over again. I think that a more modern translation may be better.
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Summary: a glorious masterpiece
Review: This book is one of those rare treasures of literature. It is a masterful study of a time and a place and of people and their society down to the most seemingly insignificant detail. Of course, this may sound daunting, boring, horribly intimidating (936 pages in this edition, in fact), but you can strip all the psychology and thematics and anti-socialist rhetoric and simply focus on the plot. It is one of the most exciting books ever written, a deep, dark probing of awful, selfish, greedy people and how they all try to screw each other out of something each one holds dear to themselves just so they can prove that they are the superior. Written as almost seperate psychological case studies mixed in with courtroom drama and theological debate, the book, even more than 100 years since its publication, still has the power to shock, to make you think, to make you possibly even reconsider some of your own most fervently held beliefs. And if that isn't your bag, you can always enjoy some wonderful cruelty, some dazzling evil and some down right hilarious atomizing of specific cultural stereotypes while you shudder and sympathize with the ultimate hopeless tragedy of all these character's lives. If you've always thought you've wanted to read at least one of the great Russian novels, ignore Tolstoi (although great, rather tedious at times) and cruise right into Dostoyevsky, sailing right to the end of his life with this, his final and greatest book.--Lance Polin
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Summary: The Greatest Novel Ever Written
Review: I foolishly put off reading The Brothers K for most of my adult life, because I didn't have the time to tackle a work of this length. Big Mistake!!! While age and maturity probably enhanced my understanding of some of the themes in this book, no person of any age who considers him- or herself a reader of quality literature should miss out on this experience. In short, this is the greatest novel ever written by anyone, in any era, in any language. And that includes Ulysees, Don Quixote, Moby Dick, War and Peace, The Trial, and any other book in or out of the "Canon." The Brothers K was Dostoevski's last work, and his previous great works (Crime & Punishment and The Idiot -- incredible accomplishments in their own right), pale by comparison. This book is one of the most remarkable achievements of human creativity. DO NOT MISS IT.
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Summary: Quite simply the seminal work of Western Literature.
Review: Unlike the Bible, whose veracity cannot be confirmed, Dostoyevsky's work here is quite simply the seminal work of Western Literature. In it , we find the archetypes for all the great literary characters for the next two hundred years. It's all here, from the most probing philsophical discussions regarding the nature of good and evil, to some of the most comic passages in world literature, this novel encompasses the totality, not only of the Russian epoch, but of our nature. As all great novels, it is resists age and culture specificity, as it plumbs for what Dostoyevsky calls "the man in man." I won't even go into plot details(how would one summarize the Bible)? It's a work of art, of history, of sociology, of science, of religion of philosophy and once done on this remarkable journey, one is hard pressed to render into common language the speech-defying edicts of the dark. THE GREATEST OF ALL GREAT NOVELS.
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Summary: The Frosting on the Cake
Review: People will tell you that you should read The Brothers Karamozov because it is Literature (capital-l) at its finest; that it encompasses great and universal themes - philosophy, morality, filial responsibility, religion - with grace and skill. Don't let the size intimidate you, they'll say; this novel will enrich you deeply. Hmm. Well sure, that's true. But more importantly, this is a damn fine read.... It's got intrigue! Romance! Greed! Betrayal! Passion! Murder! Gypsies! Desperation! Jealousy! Even brain fever! Read it for the excitement; the "enrichment" is just frosting.
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Summary: THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST!!!!!
Review: Anyone who says that this guy is a bad writer or that his work is hard to follow is full of &@#%! Dostoevsky is such an amazing author. He can build so many character backgrounds so quickly, and is elaborate throughout every page! This is definately the best book i have read, and probably will be for quite some time.
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Summary: Overwhelming
Review: I first read this book when I was 16. I also had the benefit of reading it in Russian. I've read it not may be 10 or 12 times, often just by randonly picking a chapter and reading over and over again. It still overwhelms me. Some people compare it to the Bible, some people compare it to the War and Peace, some people think it's a crime mystery, but everyone I know agrees that this is the best book ever written. You life is not complete if you haven't read this book.
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Summary: Please do yourself a favor and read it.
Review: I know the length is intimidating, but this book contains much more than a story. It is a discussion about religion, philosophy, and pure human emotion. It will make you exclaim aloud, it will make you cry tears of frustration and compassion, and in the end it will make you laugh and ultimately feel how wonderful and tragic is the human condition. Analyze it as is necessary, but then sit back and enjoy the story for itself. The work of a genius
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Summary: Most significant and least understood work of the modern age
Review: It is likely that this is the most important work of the modern age; consequently, it is also the most frequently misunderstood. While maintaining the style of the grotesque and the "fantastic realism" of all his works, Dostoevsky here brings the movement of his novel into the realm of paradisal comedy. While it is perhaps indecent to say that any great work is "about" one specific theme and that alone, it can be maintained that the fundamental theme of this work is the search for the good in a world of evil and absurdity,and the discovery of redemption. It is an exploration of the dualism of things: as Dmitri Karamazov says to his brother of the mystery of beauty, "God and the devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the human heart." The author, who influenced the philosophers and existentialists of the day, presents a Christian existentialism of mystery which is so much a part of the Russian spirit that it can not be shrugged aside as religious propaganda. Dostoevsky's God is as important to his work as Homer's gods and goddesses are to his epics. Critics who fail to realize this invariably misunderstand the whole of the work, ignoring the importance of the Elder, Zossima, whose way of suffering love is posed against the sympathetic tyranny of the famous Grand Inquisitor. Morover, they fail to see that it is Alyosha, the young monk, who is the hero of the story: the only one of the three brothers who is able to achieve peace, through his loving acceptance not only of mystery--which is, after all, intangible--but of the living, material earth as well, embodied in the soil of "Mother Russia." He is the bearer of hope for the future--although not for a future utopia, for Dostoevsky in spite of his almost mystic tendencies is a realist. Now that our culture is at last growing tired of a pretense at angst, and is willing to accept comedy, perhaps the comic--and therefore profoundly human--vision of Dostoevsky will begin to be more widely accepted
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Summary: The most dynamic book I'd ever read
Review: Even if you've never met a person even remotely like a Dostoyevsky character,you always swear that you know some of these people as you read them,or maybe it's because you're so familiar with them in your own consciousness.The vulgar gallantry of Dmitri,Ivan who lives on the respect of his intellect and on saving face,the precocious precociousness of thirteen-year-old Kolya,and the purity and simple wisom of the beautiful,beautiful Alyosha who is probably the most enchanting creation in literature,along with many,many other fascinating characters.The collision of all these personalities is both intense and enthralling,and in many ways this book seems to answer all of life's questions.I fully agree with Vonnegut who once wrote "Everything I needed to know in life I learned from The Brothers Karamazov"
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