The Brothers Karamazov

By Fyodor Dostoevsky
Translated by Constance Garnett

Fyodor Dostoevsky is one man that I want to meet in the next life. I imagine him having so much knowledge of life and I would ask him how he survived it all. His life was full of downs, but he was somehow able to overcome his trials and make something positive of them while becoming one of the greatest authors in all of history. To better understand the magnificence of The Brothers Karamazov, one must understand the life of the author. 

Dostoevsky developed epilepsy at the age of nine, his mom died when he was fifteen, his father was murdered by his families own serfs when he was seventeen, and at twenty eight he was sentenced to death by firing squad for secretly meeting with others to discuss politics, which was illegal in Russia at that time. As he stood before the firing squad on the day he was to be executed, his sentence was suddenly changed to four years of hard labor in a prison camp, which he considered as “ a time during which I was buried alive and shut up in a coffin.” While in prison his views on life changed and he found a faith in God that he had hitherto not had. “I believe that there is nothing lovelier, deeper, more sympathetic, more rational, more manly and more perfect than the Savior;...If anyone could prove to me that Christ is outside the truth, and if the truth really did exclude Christ, I should prefer to stay with Christ and not the truth.” 


*WARNING. SPOILERS*

Much of Dostoevsky’s life can be seen in his philosophical novel The Brothers Karamazov, one of the most prudent novels of the last century. In the book there is a character with epilepsy, the father figure in the book is murdered by his own servant, a prison sentence is passed to one of the characters to serve time in a prison camp, and beliefs on God are found and discussed, which is what the whole novel is centered around. Dostoevsky sculpts his novel around three brothers, Dmitri, an ardent decadent, Ivan, an intellect, Aloysha, the moral hero of the novel and their father, Fyodor, a rapacious “old buffoon”. Dostoevsky breaks apart extensive edifices of beliefs by taking the reader deep into the mind of each character. Never have I read a book that goes into so much detail about existentialism, human nature, religion, and philosophy. The characters are so deeply illustrated that they become real, and you can see yourself in some of them. It is no wonder why so many, including Sigmund Freud, have said that The Brothers Karamazov is "the most magnificent novel ever written". Straight up, Fyodor Dostoevsky is a genius. A person can not read this book without learning more about life. 

Not only is there so much detail and knowledge about life in the book, but Dostoevsky is able to bring it all together into an unforgettable storyline. Taking place in the late 1800‘s this book shows what Russia was like back then with the different social classes and standards. The story is based around a romance between Fyodor liking the same women as his son Dmitri. As the story progresses it becomes more complex psychologically and leads to the death of Fyodor Karamazov.

The Brothers Karamazov is one of the best fiction novels I have ever read. Even though the book is over 700 pages long, it kept my interest the whole time. If you are curious about reading the book, but do not know if you want to start on a 700 page book, I suggest reading one or two chapters out of the book to see if you are interested. “The Grand Inquisitor”, and “The Devil. Ivan’s Nightmare” were two of my favorite chapters in the book that one can read without ruining the storyline.

By Scott