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The Brothers Karamazov (Everyman's Library)
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Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
Publisher: Everyman's Library
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $16.32
You Save: $ 7.68 ( 32% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
Publisher: Everyman's Library
Average Customer Rating:
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The Brothers Karamazov (Everyman's Library) Description
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 891.733
EAN: 9780679410034
ISBN: 0679410031
Label: Everyman's Library
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 848
Publication Date: 1992-04-28
Publisher: Everyman's Library
Product Release Date: 1992-04-28
Studio: Everyman's Library
Dewey Decimal Number: 891.733
EAN: 9780679410034
ISBN: 0679410031
Label: Everyman's Library
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 848
Publication Date: 1992-04-28
Publisher: Everyman's Library
Product Release Date: 1992-04-28
Studio: Everyman's Library
Editorial Review of The Brothers Karamazov (Everyman's Library)
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)
Dostoevsky’s towering reputation as one of the handful of thinkers who forged the modern sensibility has sometimes obscured the purely novelistic virtues–brilliant characterizations, flair for suspense and melodrama, instinctive theatricality–that made his work so immensely popular in nineteenth-century Russia. The Brothers Karamazov, his last and greatest novel, published just before his death in 1881, chronicles the bitter love-hate struggle between the outsized Fyodor Karamazov and his three very different sons. It is above all the story of a murder, told with hair-raising intellectual clarity and a feeling for the human condition unsurpassed in world literature.
This award-winning translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky–the definitive version in English–magnificently captures the rich and subtle energies of Dostoevsky’s masterpiece.
Dostoevsky’s towering reputation as one of the handful of thinkers who forged the modern sensibility has sometimes obscured the purely novelistic virtues–brilliant characterizations, flair for suspense and melodrama, instinctive theatricality–that made his work so immensely popular in nineteenth-century Russia. The Brothers Karamazov, his last and greatest novel, published just before his death in 1881, chronicles the bitter love-hate struggle between the outsized Fyodor Karamazov and his three very different sons. It is above all the story of a murder, told with hair-raising intellectual clarity and a feeling for the human condition unsurpassed in world literature.
This award-winning translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky–the definitive version in English–magnificently captures the rich and subtle energies of Dostoevsky’s masterpiece.
Customer Reviews of The Brothers Karamazov (Everyman's Library)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Amazing
Review:
"All religions are based upon this desire and I am a believer." He comes as close as any author to expressing truth in fiction.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A review of this edition, not of the novel itself:
Review: Many reviews discuss the novel itself, so I'll just comment on this particular edition: My only complaint with this edition is its tiny margins. This, of course, is not an issue for the outside margins, but because the print is so close to the binding, I had to actually pull the two halves of the book in opposite directions to read the print near the gutter. It sounds like I'm nitpicking, but this book is by no means a quick read. Pulling on a book for a couple of hours every night is more tiring than I would have expected. I read a bit of the new edition -- translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky (Link:)The Brothers Karamazov -- in a bookstore today, and it was so comfortable, that I don't think I fully realized what I had been missing until then.
Other than that, and a few typos here and there, it's not a bad edition if you get a cheap one. I bought mine at a thrift store for 35 cents, so I can't complain. This qualifies as a book worthy of a nice edition, and if I were to read this again, which is quite possible, I would spend the $10-$12 for the Pevear/Volokhonsky.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Caveat Emptor
Review: Careful...I was looking for the award-winning Pevear/Volokohonsky translation for the Kindle. It is NOT among the current translations available for the Kindle (as of 3/12/08). (I downloaded the samples and compared the first few paragraphs to my paperback Pevear/Volkohonsky copy)
If the first paragraph is any indication of quality, pass on the versions $0.99 or less, which start with an awkward run-on sentence bad enough to make me think the translator was not very facile with english.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Who But He?
Review: Dostoevsky is my favorite author. This epic tale has inspired me. It has casts aside doubts that have labored my soul, and my faith. The author can capture the essence of a person's soul like no one I've heard, seen, or read. If everyone read, and took heart in his messages, how grand it would be.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Knowledge and redemption through suffering
Review: How could a young student ever hope to study this novel, with its size, complexity and challenging themes? I read Crime and Punishment as a youth many years ago and have never forgotten it, putting off trying the large classics of Russian literature such as "Brothers". At last I have read BK and feel richly rewarded from the experience.
In a review of the Cliff Notes for BK, I appreciated the value of the supporting notes to a solo reader, and suggest the notes as a companion for anyone contemplating the novel without the support of a teacher. The novel almost demands to be taught, rather than read solo, or risk being overwhelmed, as Dostoevsky explores many themes in depth. It's not that the plot itself is particularly deep or hard to follow, but the collective detail on the characters and their interplay, the look at Russia when it was still a religious country (leading up to the revolution), the sophisticated exchanges on religion and morals, and so on all form the incredible structure that is this novel. If you don't want the Cliff or Spark notes, try some other advance prep or plan to do some Internet browsing once you begin.
The focus on religion and its role in how people act and in their prospects for redemption was more than I anticipated. The elder Zossima, Ivan, and others put forth lengthy, reasoned arguments. The author never makes one side be the fool or demand an impossible standard for humans. The author allows strong statements to be made against God and Christianity, or at least the church as constituted in his day. One can't help but notice Dostoevsky's speaking through Zossima, especially to Russians, when he says how the unbelievers in Russia will fail and that the people will prevent the atheists from taking control of his beloved Russia. How wrong he was!
Dostoevsky clearly understood the dark side of humanity as well as individuals' capacity for love and redemption through suffering and acceptance of inevitable failures. It is the more direct, human-touch Christianity of Alyosha that will triumph in Dostoevsky's world, rather than the purely intellectual and disbelieving Ivan, a point brought home again with Ivan's breakdown.
The author uses relatively extreme personalities to show human traits, with the result that they become rather unrealistic. That is acceptable because they are not single-dimensional. For example, Dmitri, perhaps the main character in the novel, has many flaws, amply demonstrated to a near-extreme, enough that I skimmed some parts when he was particularly annoying. Even so, Dostoevsky allows Dmitri some good points, as with his basic honor that helps anchor his road to potential redemption.
My translation was the Bantam Classics paperback by Andrew MacAndrew.
Review Summary: Amazing
Review:
"All religions are based upon this desire and I am a believer." He comes as close as any author to expressing truth in fiction.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A review of this edition, not of the novel itself:
Review: Many reviews discuss the novel itself, so I'll just comment on this particular edition: My only complaint with this edition is its tiny margins. This, of course, is not an issue for the outside margins, but because the print is so close to the binding, I had to actually pull the two halves of the book in opposite directions to read the print near the gutter. It sounds like I'm nitpicking, but this book is by no means a quick read. Pulling on a book for a couple of hours every night is more tiring than I would have expected. I read a bit of the new edition -- translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky (Link:)The Brothers Karamazov -- in a bookstore today, and it was so comfortable, that I don't think I fully realized what I had been missing until then.
Other than that, and a few typos here and there, it's not a bad edition if you get a cheap one. I bought mine at a thrift store for 35 cents, so I can't complain. This qualifies as a book worthy of a nice edition, and if I were to read this again, which is quite possible, I would spend the $10-$12 for the Pevear/Volokhonsky.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Caveat Emptor
Review: Careful...I was looking for the award-winning Pevear/Volokohonsky translation for the Kindle. It is NOT among the current translations available for the Kindle (as of 3/12/08). (I downloaded the samples and compared the first few paragraphs to my paperback Pevear/Volkohonsky copy)
If the first paragraph is any indication of quality, pass on the versions $0.99 or less, which start with an awkward run-on sentence bad enough to make me think the translator was not very facile with english.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Who But He?
Review: Dostoevsky is my favorite author. This epic tale has inspired me. It has casts aside doubts that have labored my soul, and my faith. The author can capture the essence of a person's soul like no one I've heard, seen, or read. If everyone read, and took heart in his messages, how grand it would be.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Knowledge and redemption through suffering
Review: How could a young student ever hope to study this novel, with its size, complexity and challenging themes? I read Crime and Punishment as a youth many years ago and have never forgotten it, putting off trying the large classics of Russian literature such as "Brothers". At last I have read BK and feel richly rewarded from the experience.
In a review of the Cliff Notes for BK, I appreciated the value of the supporting notes to a solo reader, and suggest the notes as a companion for anyone contemplating the novel without the support of a teacher. The novel almost demands to be taught, rather than read solo, or risk being overwhelmed, as Dostoevsky explores many themes in depth. It's not that the plot itself is particularly deep or hard to follow, but the collective detail on the characters and their interplay, the look at Russia when it was still a religious country (leading up to the revolution), the sophisticated exchanges on religion and morals, and so on all form the incredible structure that is this novel. If you don't want the Cliff or Spark notes, try some other advance prep or plan to do some Internet browsing once you begin.
The focus on religion and its role in how people act and in their prospects for redemption was more than I anticipated. The elder Zossima, Ivan, and others put forth lengthy, reasoned arguments. The author never makes one side be the fool or demand an impossible standard for humans. The author allows strong statements to be made against God and Christianity, or at least the church as constituted in his day. One can't help but notice Dostoevsky's speaking through Zossima, especially to Russians, when he says how the unbelievers in Russia will fail and that the people will prevent the atheists from taking control of his beloved Russia. How wrong he was!
Dostoevsky clearly understood the dark side of humanity as well as individuals' capacity for love and redemption through suffering and acceptance of inevitable failures. It is the more direct, human-touch Christianity of Alyosha that will triumph in Dostoevsky's world, rather than the purely intellectual and disbelieving Ivan, a point brought home again with Ivan's breakdown.
The author uses relatively extreme personalities to show human traits, with the result that they become rather unrealistic. That is acceptable because they are not single-dimensional. For example, Dmitri, perhaps the main character in the novel, has many flaws, amply demonstrated to a near-extreme, enough that I skimmed some parts when he was particularly annoying. Even so, Dostoevsky allows Dmitri some good points, as with his basic honor that helps anchor his road to potential redemption.
My translation was the Bantam Classics paperback by Andrew MacAndrew.