The Brothers Karamazov
Greatest Classic Books of All Time
Publisher Description
The Brothers Karamazov (Russian: Братья Карамазовы, Brat'ya Karamazovy), also translated as The Karamazov Brothers, is the final novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov is a passionate philosophical novel set in 19th-century Russia, that enters deeply into the ethical debates of God, free will, and morality. It is a spiritual drama of moral struggles concerning faith, doubt, judgment, and reason, set against a modernizing Russia, with a plot which revolves around the subject of patricide.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The depth, complexity, and length of what many consider to be Dostoyevski's best work make it one of the hardest classic novels to bring to audio. The philosophical novel/murder mystery set in 19th-century Russia requires a strong and versatile narrator to keep listeners going for the day-and-a-half-plus duration. Thankfully, narrator Constantine Gregory masters the challenge. In doing so, he manages the omniscient third-person narration by using a pleasant mellifluous tone that invites the listener to relax and approach the text patiently and carefully. The novel also features first-person voices from the large cast of characters, such as Father Zosima, who, naturally enough, argues for the existence of a higher power and Gregory is able to imbue those sections with enough individuality to make them as distinct as the author intended.
