The Brothers Karamazov

Summary of the Book Fyodor Karamazov is a despicable man. No one likes him, not even the three sons he fathered through two marriages. His eldest son, Dmitri, is a sensualist who loves wine and women, spending a great deal of his time hankering after both. Dmitri only returns to his home for his inheritance, which he believes his father is keeping from him. The second son, Ivan, is a rationalist who is tired of all the suffering in the world. Intelligent and insufferable, he is isolated by his pride and sullen nature. The third son, Alexei, or Alyosha as he is called, is terribly unlike the rest of his family. He is universally liked, and a novice at the Russian orthodox monastery. The relationship between old man Karamazov and his sons is the focus of the novel, and when he is eventually murdered, the issues of patricide and the ethical debate of God, Free Will and morality take centre stage in Dostoyevsky’s last and perhaps greatest novel. About Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer, and philosopher. He is best remembered for Crime and Punishment and The Idiot. Dostoyevsky’s works explore the themes of human psychology in the context of the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmosphere of 19th century Russia and he has influenced generations of writers both in his homeland and abroad. The above title was adapted several times into films, most notably in 1958 by Richard Brooks, starring Yul Brynner, Richard Basehart, William Shatner and Albert Salmi.