The Brothers Karamazov
Set against the brooding backdrop of nineteenth-century Russia, this novel follows three brothers, Ivan, Dmitri, and Alexei Karamazov, whose clashing personalities and turbulent family bonds pull them towards an act of violence none of them can escape. It's a murder mystery, yes, but that's almost the least of it. Dostoevsky uses the crime as a frame on which to hang some of the most searching questions in all of literature: Does God exist? Can guilt be transferred? What do we owe each other, and ourselves? Each brother embodies a different answer, a different way of facing an indifferent world. Ivan is cold reason and rebellion; Dmitri is passion barely held together; Alexei is quiet faith tested to its limits. The characterisation is extraordinarily precise, drawing out the contradictions that make people feel genuinely human rather than fictional constructs. What makes this novel so enduring is how it refuses easy conclusions. Dostoevsky presses on the bruises of morality and spirituality without flinching, and you'll find yourself unsettled long after the final page. A rich, psychologically fierce work that rewards patient readers with something close to revelation.
- Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Publisher: Fingerprint! Publishing
- Genre: Thrillers & Suspense
- ISBN: 978-9358561609
- Pages: 980 pages