The Brothers Karamazov (Vintage Classics) (Paperback)

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Author), Richard Pevear (Translator), Larissa Volokhonsky (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

Review
“[Dostoevsky is] at once the most literary and compulsively readable of novelists we continue to regard as great . . . The Brothers Karamazov stands as the culmination of his art–his last, longest, richest, and most capacious book. [This] scrupulous rendition can only be welcomed. It returns us to a work we thought we knew, subtly altered and so made new again.” –Washington Post Book World

“A miracle . . . Every page of the new Karamazov is a permanent standard, and an inspiration.” –The Times (London)

“One finally gets the musical whole of Dostoevsky’s original.” –New York Times Book Review

“Absolutely faithful . . . Fulfills in remarkable measure most of the criteria for an ideal translation . . . The stylistic accuracy and versatility of registers used . . . bring out the richness and depth of the original in a way similar to a faithful and sensitive restoration of a painting.” –The Independent

“It may well be that Dostoevsky’s [world], with all its resourceful energies of life and language, is only now–and through the medium of [this] new translation–beginning to come home to the English-speaking reader.” –New York Review of Books

“Heartily recommended to any reader who wishes to come as close to Dostoevsky’s Russian as it is possible.” –Joseph Frank, Princeton University

With an Introduction by Malcolm V. Jones


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Description
A new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. This acclaimed new English version of Dostoevsky's last novel does justice to all its levels of artistry and intention.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 832 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (September 3, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679729259
• ISBN-13: 978-0679729259
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #387,235 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It slowly changed my life. It's still haunting me., July 27, 2000

By	Igor Otshelnik (Erie, PA USA) - See all my reviews

I think I am going to read this wonderful book again. There is so much life and passion in it, that reading it again will definitely enrich my soul even further.

I want to tell you how this novel changed my life. It was recommended to me by a Russian Orthodox priest who considered it the best source of Russian Orthodox spirituality in literature. So I read it. I read it because at the time I was striving to become a true Orthodox Christian myself. The result, however, turned out the opposite: I lost any faith I ever had in the truth of the Church and all its dogmas. This book gave me an idea that if there is God, it is certainly not what we are taught He is.

I think that in this work Dostoevsky reached the very height of what I would call "a war with oneself". He created this unforgettable contrast between what he wanted to believe (and, indeed believed at times) and what he actually was going through in his spiritual search, which were probably indescribable spiritual torments of doubt. I now have this indelible image of Ivan confiding in Alesha, arguing with Satan and, at last, denying God himself in his search for the truth. It was he, who stirred my whole being and it was Dostoevsky himself speaking through Ivan with the most profound sincerety and desperation.

On the opposite, Dostoevsky introduces Alyosha, who didn't doubt, but just loved and believed. This young man, according to Dostoevsky's plan, is a prototype of Jesus Christ himself, a man in whom the truth is open within, a man through whom one can truly feel God's love. It is a fascinating character, although, Dostoevsky depicts him in the light of Christian Orthodoxy, as an example of TRUE spirituality, as opposed to any other spirituality. Nevertheless, if we were to take liberties in the interpretation of the work, put the dogmas aside and look at Alyosha as a human being, then we could boldly say, that this young man IS the embodiment of love, truth and godliness. I really would want to at least resemble such a person!

And in the midst of this spiritual struggle, there is murder, treachery, repentance, love and comedy, which bring the characters out into your own life. I just love this book! I love the brothers, even though they are so different! There are so many things to love "The Brothers Karamazov" for, but it is for this brave, but nevertheless desperate challenge to our faith, and at the same time, a great example of living it, that I praise this book so highly. It is truly as rich, thought-provoking and awe-inspiring as life itself.

P.S. I highly recommend the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. It is the most correct and true to the spirit of the book translation available. By the way, they also translated "Crime and Punishment", "The Demons", "Notes from the Underground" and lots more, so I recommend those as well. And if you really would like to get the feel of how Dostoevsky DID NOT write, try the translation by Constance Garnett! It is outdated and, frankly, in some places she took liberties at what to leave and what to take out. I read "The Brothers Karamazov" in Russian and English, going line-by-line sometimes and discovering those literary atrocities all along the text.

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The beating heart of world literature., February 21, 2000

By	William Errickson, Jr. "Will Errickson" (Raleigh, NC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There are few words to describe this towering achievement: Magnificent. Chilling. Overwhelming. Ferocious. Intense. Uplifting. Dostoevsky's masterpiece, published just months before his death, is the single greatest book I have ever read. Every book I'd encountered is just a pale shadow of this one, for it contains everything the human heart holds dear. What I truly love about this book is its depiction of human suffering and evil--why, even the Devil himself makes an appearance, as an old Frenchman who engages atheist Karamazov brother Ivan in a philosophical discussion. The Devil takes the old Latin phrase, "I am human, therefore nothing human is alien to me" and changes it to: "I am Satan, therefore nothing human is alien to me." Jesus. My blood runs cold at the perfection of that. And Ivan himself says to his young Christian brother Alyosha: "I believe that if the Devil exists, man created him in his own image." These are some of the truest, most profound words ever spoken....

But the story! Oh, what a tangled, complex, gripping tale we have of murder, jealousy, lust, anger, and guilt! Dostoevsky knew how to spin a murder mystery, that's for sure. The genius of this book (and many of Dostoevksy's) is that it is utterly contemporary--its intensity translates well to today's world; in many ways the violence and psychological torment here is comparable to a Martin Scorsese film (the filmmaker has indeed invoked the great writer's name on several occasions). While I was reading this book, the OJ Simpson trial was in full force, and it paralleled the book's penultimate chapters in the Russian courts. All of Russian society was there, and fascinated by what the murder of Fyodor Karamazov, the father, said about Russia at the turn of the century. This is precisely what America went through during that trial in 1995--Dostoevsky's book, written over 100 years before, perfectly captured our world today. I was stunned, and what seemed like a ridiculous media circus became fraught with meaning, illuminated by "The Brothers Karamazov." Who ever would've thought...?

Read this book. Read it. It is what every work of literature wants to be... but can't quite make it.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BEAUTY WILL SAVE THE WORLD, February 7, 2001

By	Susanne Sklar (Shimer College, Waukegan IL) - See all my reviews

The Brothers Karamazov is one of the greatest books on earth. A murder mystery interwoven with at least four love-triangles, it explores dysfunctional families, the nature of God, erotic lacerations, the devil, and the human soul. Travelling through the Brothers Karamazov can be as gloriously dangerous as travelling through Russia. I've taught this book six times at Shimer College, and every year a portion of the class undergoes spiritual, erotic, and/or intellectual transformations. Several young Shimer women have fallen deeply in love with Alyosha Karamazov; his passionate purity is something many women want.

The three (or are there four?) Karamazov brothers are wildly deep characters who may seem to allegorize the body, mind, and soul as they carouse, grieve, ruminate, love, and entangle themselves in family problems more complex than Oedipus'. Your soul's weirdest demons may pale in comparison to the devils herein, but even demons can be transfigured by the indestructible love of Father Zosima, Alyosha's spiritual teacher. Will all things eventually be forgiven? Shall we ask forgiveness of the birds? The rhetorician Kenneth Burke said that literature is "equipment for living." This book can be more useful than a deluxe Swiss army knife when you're castaway in a wilderness of suffering or global injustice. Though the Constance Garnett translation is the one that saved my life I highly applaud Pevear and Volokhonsky's grasp of the book's exaggerated earthiness. They've captured the absurdity of the crazy Karamazov world without making it unduly ironic. I roared with delight when I first read this edition! Their prose flows; they have a great sense of story line. This translation nearly captures the book's original orality; Dostoyevsky dictated swaths of it to his beloved wife, Anna (who was not only his stenographer but his agent and publisher as well as the mother of his four children!) My Russian students have told me that reading BOTH translations gives one a better sense of what Dostoyevsky intended. Are we each responsible for all? Or --is everything permitted?