Massive, a definate re-read.

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	• The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002 - 824 pages average customer review:based on 105 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Best Transaltion!

I've read The Brothers Karamazov in an least four translations now, and this is an absolutely delicious translation, the very best. Pevear and Volokhonsky bring great, suggestive depth, and great subtlety to the English text of this very great Russian novel.

Massive, a definate re-read.

I found this the most thought provoking novel I have ever read, Dostoevsky writes on so many levels.

First off The Brothers Karamazov is wildly entertaining and engaging, the characters jump off the page at you then lure you in. It can be laugh out loud funny at times and quite moving at others.

Secondly and maybe more importantly I found it to be a very spiritual book. Elder Zosima is one of the greatest characters I have ever had the pleasure to read, so enlightening. But there is much to be taken from all the characters, their strengths and weaknesses and how these characteristics intertwine with one another.

A must read, I cannot wait to read it again, I know there is so much I missed on the first time through. Though maybe I will try a different translation I read the Andrew MacAndrew translation but was reserching the book and found a site witch took a paragraph out of the book and compared three of the different translations, I was amazed how different each was. I must say from that comparison MacAndrews seemed to be the most straight forward, the most 'modern english' of them all, but maybe lacking in the poetic sense (which was probably good for a first read, at least in my case).

So I would ask you fellow reviewers to note the translation that was read, it does seem quite important.

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A masterpiece

I am among the reviewers who has only read this translation and is not familiar with the Russian language, or much Russian history for that matter. Even with my limited perspective I found this translation both engaging and thought-provoking.

Dostoevsky's detailed style is arguably drawn-out, but reveals itself to be worthwhile and even necessary as the story unfolds into a rich exploration of human nature. I found myself relating to the characters with such depth as to have feelings indistinguishable from those for real people. The journey became cumbersome through the first half of the book and then accelerated with new vigor as the second half burst forth into the story for which the character development and setting had been so painstakingly laid out. The religious and moral questions offered are what I consider to be the most fulfilling narrative, exploring ideas that transcend time and culture and speak to all who look deep into the heart of their existence. Read this book- it has all the components of great literature. This truly is a great literary achievement.

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the two infinities

Some literary works are so sweeping in their vision, so penetrating in their understanding of the human condition and its psychology, so inexhaustible with respect to their spiritual insight that a reviewer feels quite small as he turns the last page and turns to comment.

Such is Dostoevsky's THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV. The three siblings, products of the unrestrained loins of the hapless Fyodor Karamazov spend most of the pages alloted to them walking their ever diverging paths and become more and more unlike each other. Then, in a hundred or so pages, Dostoevsky all but forces us to see how alike they are. How alike we are, whether under the Russian sun or some other.

Just under a thousand pages prove incapable of wearying the discerning reader of this Russian masterpiece. Each chapter brings a new twist or at least a new glimpse into how passionate and calculating we are capable of becoming, all at the same time.

Along the way, one discovers the author's uncanny predictive ability to glimpse the direction in which his Russia would go when it had loosed itself of the spiritual conviction that for centuries had held the vastness of it intact.

Dostoevsky deserves the over-used adjective 'incomparable'. This work alone achieves that.

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Absolutely Stunning!

"The Brothers Karamazov" left me speechless. It definitely merits a second reading because there is SO much to absorb here. Dostoevsky presents a perfect mix of philosophy, religion, social issues and a page-turner of a plot. This is one of the best books I've ever read. Highly recommended. The translation, by the way, is fantastic and I will read all of my Russian literature by this amazing team of writers.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

The award-winning translation of Dostoevsky's last and greatest novel.

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