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Summary: Beauty Will Save The World!!
Review: "Love to throw yourself on the earth and kiss it! Kiss the earth and love it with an unceasing, consuming love. Love all men, love everything! Water the earth with the tears of your joy and love those tears. Don't be ashamed of your ecstasy, prize it."Thus ended the paragraph that saved my life from Book VI of Constance Garnett's translation of The Brothers Karamazov. Read unintentionally in tandem with the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony it wreaked upon me a transvaluation of all values. This also happened to some of my students at Shimer College where I teach both the Constance Garnett and the Pevear/Volokhonsky translations. I urge my students who love the book to read BOTH translations. Constance Garnett's poetic grasp of Dostoyevsky's language (with occasionally antiquated twists of phrase) assumes the worldview of the nineteenth century, which is the century in which Dostoyevsky wrote. Her first translation appeared in about 1912. She lovingly captures the cadences of Father Zosima's voice. This wise elder's words are at the heart of this book. I have never understood why his chapter, "The Russian Monk" has not been excerpted and widely read as "The Grand Inquisitor" which precedes it. Poverty, injustice, cruelty, and the suffering of innocents can only be transformed by love--and beauty. This book, a murder mystery interwoven with four love-triangles, exploring dysfunctional families, the nature of God, erotic lacerations, forgiveness, the devil, and the Russian soul can give you the equipment you need to cope with life's agonies, to go through suffering and into joy. Hurrah for Karamazov!
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Summary: yup, this book ain't half bad
Review: This is the book that should be shot out into space for the extraterrestrials. You want to know about mankind and this place called earth, you nether-dwellers of the cosmos? Well, here it is.
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Summary: Masterpiece!
Review: This is the last Dostoyevsky novel and possibly the best. I only consider his Crime and Punishment to be better than this one. The Brothers Karamazov is a typical Dostoyevsky story. Story of love and hate between brothers and his father, money and girls are involved, and psychology of all characters is being painted with a great skill. In the end, you will not be sure who was actually guilty of what... The story is rather short in its abridged form and especially in the first third it does not flow that smoothly. Later it gains more momentum and you just can not stop the tape. Sir Anthony Quayle's (reader) performance helps very much to keep the tension and excitment high.
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Summary: The greatest novel ever written...
Review: was what a character in a Kurt Vonnegut book said about this work. And it's certainly the best one I've ever read! The chapter "The Grand Inquisitor," should be read by every fundamentalist Christian...especially those who give their hard earned money to televangelists or who "tithe." If there's one novel to read in this life, choose this one.
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Summary: Beautiful Book-- BAD TRANSLATION
Review: I was fortunate enough to take a semester long course on Dostoevsky, and instead of buying the reccomended translation (fyi: Vintage Classic translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky) I bought this one, and ended up regretting it. The words used in some of the critical passages are translated in such a way that it gives the reader a much different impression of the plot and mindset of the characters. In addition, this particular translation is very awkward in many places making it significantly more difficult to read. I ended up buying the other translation anyway, and my enjoyment of this incredible novel improved tremendously. Spend the extra money on the Vintage edition, Brother's Karamazov is worth it!
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Summary: A Grand Epic!!!!
Review: This is one of the greatest books ever not written in Dactylic Hexameter, authored by one of the finest novelists who has ever lived. It is a masterwork of storytelling which inquires into such topics as morality, mortality, the veracity of religion as well as some of the possible ethical implications of a universe minus an omnipotent and benevolent creator. And, of course (for those scoring at home) it also contains Ivan's infamous allegory of the "Grand Inquisitor." The novel centers around the denizens of a small Russian town. The way in which D weaves their life stories together reminds me a lot of Thomas Mann's "Buddenbrooks." Within the story one can find representatives from almost every walk of life, from the arrogant and proud to the curious and inquisitive to the slothful and pernicious. In many ways, Dimytri and the father represent Nietzsche's exegesis on the Dionysian, countered against the Apollonian outlook of Ivan. Alexie is somewhere in the middle. But one will understand all of this much better by reading the book. As is the case with Shakespeare's "King Lear," Foucault's "Discipline And Punish," Camus' "The Plague" and Hesse' "Beneath The Wheel," there are scenes within this novel that will stay with the reader for the rest of his / her life. Leading the tragic, difficult and mostly unhappy life that he did, Dostoyevsky knew a great deal more about human cruelty and human suffering than the lot of us. One can easily see just how much his sojourn in Siberia as well as his bout with epilepsy influenced his writings. For those ambitious enough to experience this magnificent literary accomplishment be warned: it is one of the most powerful texts you will ever read. It is literature's counterpart to plutonium. A wonderful book for atheists, theologians, scholars and laymen. Read this book with care, but do read it.
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Summary: In my top ten list
Review: I have read this book twice and have found it each time disturbing, fascinating and thought provoking. Dostoyevsky put a part of his soul into this book and gives us one of the very best novels of all time. Indeed, it can be hard slogging at times; Russian culture comes very much into play in many parts of the book and it is good to buy a version where these aspects are explained. It filles out much of what Dostoyevsky is trying to say. For this is more than a story- it is an epic that seeks to speak much about the nature of the human condition, of society and of God. On this latter point, Dostoyevsky'd brilliant wade into theological questioning, into the theodicy of God and evil makes for haunting reading. who can answer Ivan's question as to how a small child can go through excruciating suffering and justify it by a heaven to come? Is this the God we worship? What tough questions tha leave me thinking long after reading it! I think Dostoyevsky goes beyond his own desires to write about, as he put it, his hero "Alyosha". Indeed Alyosha is an interesting character -yet perhaps the character with whom at least I can identify the least. His purity and goodness are too incongruous with my own life. Perhaps it is that very nature of his character that Dostoyevsky, the addicted gambler, valued. Much has been said about this novel and it can never be enough. You have not read the greatest of literature until you have read The Brother Karamazov.
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Summary: Nothing Unexpected
Review: I started reading Dostoyevsky with the Notes from Underground, and I never stopped. After Crime and Punishment, I thought I had read the best, but I must admit that I was wrong. Any psychology major out there should have some sort of an interest in Dostoyevsky, since, mathematically speaking, Dostoyevsky equals psychology. I recommend this book, and all of his work to anyone with any interest in any field.
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Summary: probably the most boring book i've ever read
Review: After reading Crime and Punishment which became my favorite book, I expected The Brothers Karamazov to much better since I keep hearing this is Dostoyevsky's best and all. I could hardly stand it. It was sooooooo boring. Maybe I'm not patient or something but after 200 pages it didn't seem to be going anywhere. All I had learned was that the brothers didn't like their father. I found almost all the characters to rather cynical and depressing. The only character who I thought was okay was Alyosha. Don't think i put down books immediatly if I don't like them either. I HATE to put down books. My conscience wouldn't get off my back after I quit this. But it just wasn't going anywhere.
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Summary: A Hymn and a Secret
Review: This is hands down the greatest story ever written. Brothers Karamazov probes the depths of the human soul, and seeks answers to the meaning of life by contrasting the personalities of the three main characters each of which represent a facet of human nature taken to it's cartoon extereme: Alyosha the spirit and exemplar of Christ-like love, Ivan the intellect and seeker of absolute truth, and Dimitry the man completely ruled by his passion. Each of the brothers is bound to one another by their common heritage to their father which represents the theme of universal brotherhood expounded by the beliefs of Father Zossima, the spiritual father of Alyosha. Likewise each brother was in part responsible for the death of their father: Ivan by his cold indifference to the well being of his father, Alyosha through is inability to act on his forebodings, and Dimitry by his outright hatred for his father. The idea of ultimate depravity is seen in the lecherous father Fyodor, as that of seperation from God is seen in Smerdyakov, the illegimate son of Fyodor. The two of them are the antithesis to the brothers' unity and serve as a catalyst to the sin they are responsible for. In the end the spiritual Alyosha is the novels hero, and his faith in Christ as the only true freedom from the confusion of life. The Brothers' Karamazov is a must read for anybody who seeks meaning in life and searches for the truth of their soul.
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