Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... The Brothers Karamazov (Signet Classics) (original 1880; edition 2007)by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Sara Paretsky (Afterword), Manuel Komroff (Foreword)
Work InformationThe Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1880)
Favourite Books (48) » 87 more Out of Copyright (8) 19th Century (15) Books Read in 2017 (172) Five star books (154) Top Five Books of 2014 (186) Folio Society (403) Books Read in 2022 (858) Books Read in 2016 (2,550) CCE 1000 Good Books List (255) Story Within a Story (14) Existentialism (16) The Greatest Books (54) Política - Clásicos (156) Fiction For Men (74) Fake Top 100 Fiction (62) AP Lit (336) Romans (21) Books on my Kindle (114) SHOULD Read Books! (187) Books Read in 2014 (2,187) I Can't Finish This Book (148) Unread books (821) Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.
Long. Arduous. A lot to think about. Good. ( ) This book is too long and too involved to even attempt to write a comprehensive review. Dostoyevsky is brilliant and insightful, but I am unclear as to what, exactly, he was trying to accomplish with this novel. The worst father (really, he is just an ejaculator, because that was the last moment at which he participated in the birth and rearing of his three [or, maybe 4] sons) in the world abuses and debases his children at his whim. They suffer accordingly in their relationships with him and others - especially females. I found that the overall emotion of the book was just too, too (if you know what I mean) - the three sons all seem to be afflicted with the emotional maturity of 14 year old boys - their perceptions of and treatment of women is both childish and annoying - Ivan and Dmitry are given to making fervid declarations about most everything but especially about Grushenka and Katerina Ivanova - like, give it a rest boys, grow up - you fucked up - you trusted women - big mistake mes amis - I did not feel bad about Dmitry's conviction - the guy had it coming - you cannot spend your entire life abusing others at will, and without reason, and then expect consideration from your peers - the worst parts of the book occur when particular characters (Zosima and Ivan come to mind) go on for dozens of pages giving lectures about their individual perceptions of this-or-that dogma or principle - if you want enjoyment, I recommend that you read Tolstoy whose books are much less preachy and much more compelling. I think Dostoyevsky gets credit for the same reason that Thomas Pynchon ("Gravity's Rainbow") and James Joyce ("Ulysses") do - they are all so abstruse that only really cool and highly intelligent people dig their maundering books - or, so it is assumed - nonetheless - I am glad that I read through the 822 pages and I feel enriched in terms of knowing a little bit more about the Russian people and their society - who are so aggressively and endlessly defamed in the America of 2024. Well, that didn't take long. In one of my favorite lines of his, writing about one of my favorite films, Roger Ebert writes, "'The Fall' is so audacious that when Variety calls it a 'vanity project', you can only admire the man vain enough to make it." This is essentially that: an astonishing 800 page novel about a murder that's not really about a murder but about what Dostoyevsky quotes as the "accursed" questions, per the P-V notes: "God versus reason, human destiny, the future of Russia, and so forth." It swings from the melodramatic actions and speeches of a Bette Davis film to the exacting dissection of an ecclesiastic court. Sometimes this latter proves terribly readable (The Grand Inquisitor); sometimes it just proves terrible (From the Talks and Homilies of the Elder Zosima). Turgenev said of Dostoyevsky: "He is the nastiest Christian I've ever met." At the moment, I bear sympathy for both accuser and accused. I feel a bit put out at what Dostoyevsky has subjected me to, yet admiring of the marvelous pre-evangelical vanity. One of those great books that reaches across the intervening decades and centuries and speaks to life lived wherever and whenever. Every page is thick with the internal quarrel of intellect, and there are so many ideas packed into the stories of the brothers and their town. Dostoyevsky is clearly trying to teach us something, but what it is defies summary. He’s cast as a conservative, and I understand why, but I think what is central here is a skepticism that human nature can be changed, and especially not by the deeply flawed reformers of the era. You might come away feeling like this is a polemic for Christianity, but I think this book is more about the nostalgia for God (which may just be faith by another name) in a time when all progress seemed set against tradition and belief in a higher power. I think doubt plays as great a role here as belief, and that’s why Dostoyevsky is a philosopher, not a polemicist. And yet, this kind of doubt is holy too, contrasted as it is by the majority of the characters who are either driven mad by freedom from god, or waste time blathering platitudes while never committing themselves to any kind of moral code. I’m amazed by Dostoyevsky’s ear for dialogue, which even in translation, leaps off the page. With so many different characters, you can still identify who is speaking by their style and words. In the modern era where we put so much emphasis on personal expression and navel gazing, this skill for writing different voices is a testament to an artist who was deeply interested in other people, and had amazing ability to step outside his own perspective and convincingly write as others might speak. I think this quality can tell us a lot about the grand goal of this book, to teach us that there is no worse enemy than ourselves, and to blindly destroy and denigrate tradition is to cut loose all the moorings that keep us from spiraling into the void. In order to live on this earth in peace, a man must submit to something. Whether that be religion, love for family, or work and duty, to live without submission is to become a crude and wild demigod, a fallen angel with no rudder but your own fickle desires. Belongs to Publisher SeriesClube de Literatura Clássica (CLC) (37 [May 2023]) — 21 more Everyman's Library (802-803) Great Books of the Western World (Volume 52, 1952 ed.) Modern Library (151) La nostra biblioteca Edipem (52-53) Is contained inGreat Books Of The Western World - 54 Volume Set, Incl. 10 Vols of Great Ideas Program & 10 Volumes Gateway To Great Books by Robert Maynard Hutchins (indirect) GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD--54 Volumes 27 volumes 1961-1987 GREAT IDEAS TODAY (Yearbooks) 10 volumes GATEWAY TO THE GREAT BOOKS 10 volumes GREAT IDEAS PROGRAM. Total 101 Volumes. by Robert Maynard Hutchins (indirect) ContainsHas the adaptationIs abridged inInspiredHas as a studyHas as a commentary on the textHas as a student's study guideAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Classic Literature.
Fiction.
HTML: What is free will? Is redemption possible? Can logic help us answer moral questions? Renowned Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky tackles all of these topics and many more in this remarkable novel, widely regarded as one of the classic masterpieces of literature. Follow the Karamazov family through the travails that transpire after the murder of their father, and expand your intellectual horizons with a work that celebrated thinkers such as Einstein, Freud, and Pope Benedict XVI cite as one of their favorites. .No library descriptions found.
|
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)891.733Literature Literature of other languages Literature of east Indo-European and Celtic languages Russian and East Slavic languages Russian fiction 1800–1917LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Penguin AustraliaAn edition of this book was published by Penguin Australia. Urban RomanticsAn edition of this book was published by Urban Romantics. |