The Karamazov Brothers

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Jun 2008 · OUP Oxford

About this ebook

Dostoevsky's last and greatest novel, The Karamazov Brothers (1880) is both a brilliantly told crime story and a passionate philosophical debate. The dissolute landowner Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov is murdered; his sons - the atheist intellectual Ivan, the hot-blooded Dmitry, and the saintly novice Alyosha - are all at some level involved. Bound up with this intense family drama is Dostoevsky's exploration of many deeply felt ideas about the existence of God, the question of human freedom, the collective nature of guilt, the disatrous consequences of rationalism. The novel is also richly comic: the Russian Orthodox Church, the legal system, and even the authors most cherished causes and beliefs are presented with a note of irreverence, so that orthodoxy, and radicalism, sanity and madness, love and hatred, right and wrong are no longer mutually exclusive. Rebecca West considered it "the allegory for the world's maturity", but with children to the fore. This new translation does full justice to Doestoevsky's genius, particularly in the use of the spoken word, which ranges over every mode of human expression. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Ratings and reviews

Ivan attempts to demolish the religious convictions of his brother, through his journalistic accounts of the sufferings of children, and his strange tale of the fate of the returned Christ. Dmitri falls into a debauched sleep, after having possibly killed his father: he dreams like a child, who alone perceives the unnecessary sufferings of the common people. He awakes to a murder charge, but his reaction is one of elation, realising his life has now begun...

The novel is great, the translation is fine, but the edition is terrible and an embarrassment to the publisher. Numerous misplaced hyperlinks and endnote links that do not go to the correct endnote. Just terrible.

The Oxford University Press edition, translated by Ignat Avsey, is an absolute joy to read. I've also read the entire Constance Garnet translation, which is still an acceptable translation of an already incredible story, but this new translation, with it's excellent explanatory notes provides a completely fresh perspective.