It requires a certain amount of modesty to review a work of the caliber of The Brothers Karamazov. As far as I am concerned Dostoevsky is the greatest of the pantheon of 19th century Russian authors who collectively represent the pinnacle of Russian letters and culture. This novel has been on my list of books I need to get to for some time. It was worth the wait.

The plot revolves around the male members of the Karamazov family. a father and three sons who could not be more unlike. The dissolute patriarch Fyodor, the ex-officer eldest son by Fyodor's first wife, Dmitry, the intellectual atheist middle son, Ivan, and the devout monk in training Alexey. The main female characters are Katerina, the sometime fiancée of Dmitry and beloved of Ivan, and Grushenka, who is an obsession of Dimitry and his father. Grushenka, in turn, is holding a torch for a Polish officer who had wronged her and abandoned her five earlier. Katerina is a woman scorned, by Dmitry, and who ultimately is revenged upon Dmitry, who, undone by his fatal flaws, ends up on trial for the murder of his father, who is not only in competition with him for the favors of Grushenka, but has, at least according to Dmitry, cheated his son out of an inheritance from his mother who died when Dmitry was in his early childhood.

Among the supporting cast is one Smerdyakov, a servant in the household of Karamazov pere, and thought to be Karamazov's illegitimate son. Also, Rakitin, like Alexey, a novice in training to become a monk, but in reality a first-class cynic, who could not be less promising a candidate for a religious vocation. Alexey is a disciple of a Fr. Zossima, who is what is called an "elder" which is a role a lot deeper than just an older man. He is visited early in the novel in an attempt to resolve the broken relationship between Dmitry and his father, at least concerning the dispute over the inheritance.

There is a large supporting cast of characters that come in and out of the novel, with particular significance attached to an ex-captain Snegiryov and his family, most prominently his ailing son Ilyusha. There are plots within the plot, but they all revolve around the brothers and especially Dmitry. It is clear that Ivan is a representative of the modern, Western looking liberal intellectual bent in 19th century Russia. He is rational, atheistic and scientific. Alexey is obviously Dostoevsky's hero; he says as much in the novel. He represents the Russian orthodox believer. He is pious, modest, chaste and unfailingly generous of spirit. Dmitry is a little more difficult to pigeonhole. Late in the novel in a speech made by a public prosecutor he is likened to primitive Russia, maybe before the triumph of Orthodoxy. Whatever he is meant to symbolize, he is dissolute, prone to drink, violence and unable to be responsible with money. He suffers from an excess of thymos. and is unable to contain his emotions. The one positive character trait he possesses is a sense of honor.

It would take more time than I can allot or the reader is likely to endure to relate all of the events of Dostoevsky's masterpiece. After all, my Penguin Classics edition runs to 913 pages. It would also involve revealing a great number of spoilers which should not be done to prospective readers willing to tackle this immense work. Suffice it to say that The Brothers Karamazov is suffused with the great themes of literature: love, hate, envy, jealousy, suffering, guilt, vengeance, greed, loyalty, betrayal, justice, belief, atheism, evil, virtue, charity, man's fate in general and the destiny of Russia in particular.

This is a great book and worth your time and effort, both of which will be taxed and rewarded. ( )

The question of nature versus nurture has always been a topic for debate. Who are we? Why are we here? Do we have a divine reason for being on this planet? In short, Dostoevsky is asking for the meaning of life. Sort of. This is the story of a patricide when any of Fyodor's children could have been his killer because no one has a good relationship with him. Not to mention the competition between father and son over Agrafena (Grushenka). Here is a brief overview of The Brothers Karamazov:
Book One sets up the family dynamic

Book Two introduces the dispute over the family inheritance

Book Three is about the love triangle between Fyodor, Dmitri, and Grushenka

Book Four - you can skip. It's a side story

Book Five is pros and contra, the Grand Inquisition & Jesus (reason and blind faith)

Book Six is about the Russian monk; the life and history of Elder Zosima, dying in his cell

Book Seven introduces Alyosha and the death and decay of Zosima

Book Eight illustrates Dmitri's greed in order to run away with Grushenka

Book Nine is Fyodor's murder (finally)

Book Ten is another side story

Book eleven is about Brother Ivan and his quest to find his father's killer

Book Twelve is the trial of Dimitri ( )

Dostoyevsky’s final work, his manifesto, can be a slog. Primed on literature of the last 50-100 years, the contemporary reader is hard pressed to wade through elaborate detail, occasional plot holes, characters who are too representative to be relatable (female characters receive short shrift) and an ending that leaves the fate of its characters up in the air. This is a book best read in chapters, like a Dickensian serial, with the mindset of a long winter. Hard to get through at first reading; better the second time around (with a bit of speed reading through parts) when one knows what to expect and has the whole of its importance in hand. Dostoyevsky was a (gasp!) flawed person. He didn’t write sentences as beautifully as Turgenev or Tolstoy. He hits the reader over the head with his positions and his allegories. The importance of The Brothers Karamazov lies in 1) its reflection of late 19th century provincial Russia and its position in that time period; 2) its influence on the 20th century (including Freud, D.H. Lawrence, Graham Greene, Orhan Pamuk, apparently Putin); and 3) it’s discussion of questions still engaging the 21st century: faith and intellect, freedom to choose not to be free, the individual vs the society, the meaning of grief, can one have hope in a hopeless place? Under the ‘some things never change’ banner are comments on the medical profession, class interactions, established religion, the appearance of Trump, and why Putin succeeded where Gorbachev could not. Americans should have an affinity for Dostoyevsky — both Russia and America have based much of their identity on not being European, having a love/hate relationship with Europe, and a belief in their own innately special separateness. ( )

"I fratelli Karamazov sono il romanzo più grandioso che mai sia stato scritto, l'episodio del Grande Inquisitore è uno dei vertici della letteratura universale, un capitolo di bellezza inestimabile... Non è certo un caso che tre capolavori di tutti i tempi trattino lo stesso tema, il parricidio: alludiamo all'Edipo re di Sofocle, all'Amleto di Shakespeare e ai Fratelli Karamazov di Dostoevskij. In tutte e tre le opere è messo a nudo anche il motivo del misfatto: la rivalità sessuale per il possesso della donna." (Sigmund Freud) ( )

Yes a lovely engaging story - maybe too masculine? ( )