Book Bearings
The Brothers Karamazov
- 821 pages · about 14 hours
- First published 1880
- 393 editions
- Free to read
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1 About this book
Fyodor Karamazov is a rich, coarse and dissolute landowner in a Russian provincial town, and a negligent father to three sons. Dmitri, the eldest, a passionate former officer, is quarreling with him over an inheritance and over the same woman, Grushenka. Ivan, the second, is a brilliant intellectual who doubts God; Alyosha, the youngest, is a gentle novice at the local monastery, devoted to the elder Zosima. There is also Smerdyakov, the sullen servant of the house. As the family's hatreds come to a head a murder is committed, and the question of who is guilty, in law and in conscience, occupies the rest of the novel. Dostoevsky's last novel was published as a serial in 1879 and 1880.
- Classics
- Literary fiction
- Murder
- Ancient History
- Greek Mathematics
- Political science
- Political ethics
- Brothers
2 What to expect
Dostoevsky's last and longest novel: three very different brothers, their hateful father, and a murder that puts faith, doubt and guilt on trial. It is a family drama, a crime story and a philosophical argument at once, with long conversations about God, freedom and suffering, the famous Grand Inquisitor chapter among them. It is intense, talkative and slow to start, and the narrator often steps in with remarks of his own.
Good for readers who want: a great Russian novel, questions of faith and morality, and a rich, rewarding read.
3 Read it free, right here
A free scan from the Internet Archive opens right here on the page, with no sign-up.
Read it on the Internet Archive4 About Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
5 More by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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