The Brothers Karamazov

The Karamazov Brothers by Fyodor Dostoevsky (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 involved at some level. Dostoevsky's intense and disturbing exploration of ideas about the existence of God, freedom of will, the collective nature of guilt, and the consequences of rationalism is vividly presented. This translation captures the power and dramatic virtuosity of Dostoevsky's most brilliant work.