Generally considered one of Dostoyevsky's greatest novels, on the surface it is the story of a patricide in which all of the murdered man's sons share varying degrees of complicity, but on a deeper level it is a spiritual dramatization of the struggle between faith, doubt, reason, and free will. [Translated by Constance Garnett.]
ow about it, except that she would be better at the bottom of the river than remaining with her benefactress. So the poor child exchanged a benefactress for a benefactor. Fyodor Pavlovitch did not get a penny this time, for the general's widow was furious. She gave them nothing and cursed them both. But he had not reckoned on a dowry; what allured him was the remarkable beauty of the innocent girl, above all her innocent appearance, which had a peculiar attraction for a vicious profligate, who had hitherto admired only the coarser types of feminine beauty.
"Those innocent eyes slit my soul up like a razor," he used to say afterwards, with his loathsome snigger. In a man so depraved this might, of course, mean no more than sensual attraction. As he had received no dowry with his wife, and had, so to speak, taken her "from the halter," he did not stand on ceremony with her. Making her feel that she had "wronged" him, he took advantage of her phenomenal meekness and submissiveness to trample on the elemen
Eloquently written as only Dostoevsky can. A true masterpiece.
This is an incredible book. Read it in this translation:
The Brothers Karamazov
Fyodor Dostoevsky (Author), Richard Pevear (Translator), Larissa Volokhonsky (Translator)
It makes a HUGE difference! Garnett translated some things in a such way that it changed the meaning of Dostoevsky. Just compare The Grand Inquisitor chapter in both translations. You will be surprised. Trust me, Russian is my native language!
I know its supposed to be a great book, but I just could not get on with it. I was bored by the characters and waiting for something interesting to happen. I thought I could cope with a bit book about Russians after reading Anna Karenina and War and Peace but this was too much hard going. I must be a philistine!
I've read it! Twice! And then I bought it to keep! Great, great novel!
Simply the greatest novel ever written.
