The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Jul 2010 · Blackstone Audio Inc. · Narrated by Frederick Davidson

About this audiobook

This passionate novel of ethics and morality, religion and philosophy was Dostoevsky’s final and best work.

After spending four years in a Siberian penal settlement, during which time he underwent a religious conversion, Dostoevsky developed a keen ability for deep character analysis. In The Brothers Karamazov, he explores human nature at its most loathsome and cruel but never flinches at what he finds.

The Brothers Karamazov tells the stirring tale of four brothers: the pleasure-seeking, impatient Dmitri; the brilliant and morose Ivan; the gentle, loving, and honest Alyosha; and the illegitimate Smerdyakov: shy, silent, and cruel. The four unite in the murder of one of literature’s most despicable characters—their father. While on the surface a story about patricide, this novel is, on a deeper level, a spiritual tale of the struggle between faith, doubt, reason, and free will.

Ratings and reviews

Not a bad reading overall, but there are several parts in which the audio abruptly shifts. Whether the recording was lost and had to be redone or some other technical failure occurred, I found them to be quite jarring - particularly during dialogue in which I was uncertain whether the shift was a glitch or a different character. Only other complaint is the voices were very similar in their scratchy reading. Sometimes had to wait for other cues to understand who was speaking.

About the author

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821–1881) was a Russian novelist, journalist, and short-story writer whose psychological penetration into the darkest recesses of the human heart had a profound and universal influence on the twentieth-century novel. He is known for his masterpiece, Crime and Punishment, as well as other works, including The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov.

Constance Garnett (1862–1946) translated the works of numerous Russian authors, including Tolstoy, Gogol, Pushkin, and Turgenev.

David Case (a.k.a. Frederick Davidson) (1932–2005) was born in London and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He performed in BBC radio plays before coming to America in 1976. The narrator of more than eight hundred audiobooks, he garnered numerous Earphones Awards and a Grammy nomination for his readings. He was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine in 1997.