{"id":10019,"date":"2024-07-28T19:26:38","date_gmt":"2024-07-28T17:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=10019"},"modified":"2024-08-03T23:40:27","modified_gmt":"2024-08-03T21:40:27","slug":"die-brueder-karamasow-fjodor-dostojewski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2024\/07\/the-brothers-karamazov-fyodor-dostoyevsky\/","title":{"rendered":"The Brothers Karamazov \u2022 Fyodor Dostoyevsky"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Some time ago, I was a bit at a loss as to which book to pick up next \u2014 it happens. My TBR pile isn\u2019t particularly large at the moment. Not long ago I read a book by Camus in which he wrote about the inspiring power of The Brothers Karamazov<\/em>. I also heard from other quarters that the book is truly worth reading, so I ordered it and read it straight away. Given its great length and demanding content, it was clear to me from the outset that this wouldn\u2019t be a light read. But the great old classics usually hold a valuable treasure within them, and those who dive in are almost always richly rewarded. What you\u2019ll find in this book is abundantly rich. Let me tell you a bit about it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Brothers Karamazov<\/em> is a crime novel in which a dissolute, hedonistic father, Fyodor, has three sons. He has cared for none of his children, devoting himself instead to his business dealings and debauched lifestyle. Fyodor is murdered, and suspicion falls on one son who had argued with him about money. Only on the surface is the question who the murderer is. Dostoevsky rather opens a deep view into the human psyche and spans the arc to the great philosophical, social, and theological questions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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So the book is only secondarily a crime novel. From the way Dostoevsky characterizes his figures, you immediately notice that the Karamazov family is consciously constructed. That doesn\u2019t make the characters any less realistic. There are three brothers: Dmitri is the passionate, impulsive soldier \u2014 hot-tempered and stormy, hard to rein in, with problems involving women and money. Ivan is the intellectual doubter, a skeptic and cynic, highly educated and representing the enlightened rationalist. The youngest brother is Alyosha, deeply devout, spiritual, ascetic, and in complete contrast to his two brothers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I found the father wonderfully done \u2014 Dostoevsky portrays him superbly. A dissolute, ruthless man who gives himself entirely to debauchery, conducts his business unscrupulously, a model usurer, and gloriously selfish. He makes no secret of his life philosophy, flies into rages, drinks heavily, and chases women. It\u2019s powerfully atmospheric when he tells his sons they\u2019ll get no money from him because he needs it himself \u2014 he intends to maintain his depraved lifestyle into old age.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Another important figure I really liked is Grushenka. The Karamazovs compete for her, and she reminded me very much of the dissolute women in Balzac\u2019s novels. She\u2019s beautiful, passionate, desirable, yet socially unaccepted, calculating, egocentric, and still capable of devotion. Her presence drives the story forward and adds romantic passion as an important psychological impetus to the novel.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What Dostoevsky unfolds here, however, goes far beyond these main figures. He takes plenty of time for subplots and secondary characters. In numerous episodes, the reader learns a great deal about the entire milieu surrounding the Karamazov family. I found some of these side stories very successful and entertaining \u2014 for example, about Lizaveta the Stinking, an apparently mentally impaired and unappealing woman who becomes unexpectedly pregnant. Some strands are treated at great length, such as that of Elder Zosima, whose disciple is the youngest Karamazov brother. At times that was too much for me. Yet this wealth of detail gives the novel tremendous depth. Dostoevsky quite deliberately builds a counterweight to the depraved father, but he also presents a theism that must have mattered to him as an author \u2014 a faith based on forgiveness, devotion, and love of one\u2019s neighbor rather than church institutions or rigid dogma. I found the role of a starets<\/em> \u2014 a respected and venerated elder in an Orthodox monastery with a more informal role, often teaching novices \u2014 particularly interesting. When Dostoevsky then inserts a life history of the elder, the length of it did go too far for me.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Another important subplot that runs through the entire novel is that of Ilyusha, the son of a discharged and impoverished soldier. Here the reader encounters oppressive, harrowing poverty. With Ilyusha\u2019s story, Dostoevsky aims to depict precisely this poverty, but also the innocence of childhood and how it is clouded by the adult world. In doing so, he portrays the social conflicts of his time and gives them a theological component by echoing the sufferings of Christ.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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The novel is suffused with the great metaphysical questions \u2014 very typical of the great Russian classics. Dostoevsky\u2019s own profound doubts about faith take up considerable space here. He had a devout mother but repeatedly doubted belief himself and grappled all his life with complex philosophical and theological questions. Two chapters in particular impressed me deeply. In one, Ivan \u2014 the sober, enlightened, atheistic brother \u2014 explains to his younger, devout brother Alyosha his doubts about God. Ivan argues that an omnipotent and benevolent God who allows the suffering of children cannot exist. This is where Ivan founders, and Dostoevsky conveys it in powerful language, illustrating with examples in which children became innocent victims and using this as a weighty argument against belief in God. He poses the question whether it is morally justifiable that children must suffer for the sins of humanity.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In a second chapter, Ivan tells the story of the Grand Inquisitor. In sixteenth-century Seville, during the Inquisition, Jesus appears. He heals a blind old man and raises a dead child. The Cardinal Grand Inquisitor witnesses this, has Jesus arrested, and delivers a long monologue explaining that Jesus has no right to disturb the Church. He argues that people cannot bear freedom and that it is the Church\u2019s task to control them and provide security. This story, too, is told with a compelling urgency that simply grips the reader \u2014 Jesus no longer needed, because people cannot endure freedom.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I found many chapters highly entertaining and devoured them attentively. Others I experienced as very long-winded. The trial, for instance, with its exhaustive speeches and summations, was excessively drawn out. The general mood is often depressing and gloomy. There were days when I simply didn\u2019t want to pick up the book \u2014 it would have been too heavy for me then. Yet the novel rewarded me richly: many scenes and many characterizations through what the figures think are simply fascinating and moving. The officer\u2019s daughter Katerina, for example, is extraordinarily well drawn. Her motives and feelings are utterly genuine \u2014 I believed Dostoevsky completely. If someone told me this woman truly existed and was exactly as portrayed, I would believe it. Such detailed psychological insight into characters\u2019 minds I previously knew primarily from the stories of Henry James.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

So what\u2019s in this novel? An enormous amount. Yes, a crime story \u2014 but beyond that, questions of human relationships; questions of philosophy, faith, society, psychology, justice. It is also a portrait of Russian society of the time, influenced by Western Enlightenment, which had recently undergone the emancipation of the serfs, and yet was still marked by the Russian soul (the genuine nineteenth-century Russian soul, not what one encounters these days).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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I picked up the thin-paper edition from Anaconda Verlag. It\u2019s not exactly low budget, but it does feel pleasantly high quality. You don\u2019t get extras like sewn binding or a linen cover, but rather a plainly designed cardboard case; all the same, the book is solidly made. Hermann R\u00f6hl\u2019s translation is older (1924) but has been gently revised for this edition, and it reads smoothly and pleasantly.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Conclusion:<\/strong> The fascinating and expansive novel The Brothers Karamazov<\/em> is an exceptional read. Not easy \u2014 with its often depressing overall mood and many slow passages \u2014 but with an extraordinarily broad range. Dostoevsky does not shy away from the great philosophical and theological questions, and I found Ivan\u2019s doubts about faith particularly moving, for in them I recognized Dostoevsky\u2019s own inner struggle. The deep psychological insight into the figures repeatedly captivated me as I read. The way Dostoevsky characterizes the brothers and the figures around the Karamazovs is a great achievement \u2014 compelling to read and full of nuances that inevitably prompt reflection. It\u2019s a book one could read multiple times and still discover countless new things. But you have to take the time and commit to it. It\u2019s not a novel you read on the side. Those who immerse themselves in it will find something there \u2014 surely something for themselves \u2014 because the thoughts Dostoevsky wrestles with are timeless.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Book information: <\/strong>The Brothers Karamazov<\/em> \u2022 Fyodor Dostoevsky \u2022 Anaconda Verlag \u2022 1264 pages \u2022 ISBN 9783730611623<\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some time ago, I was a bit at a loss as to which book to pick up next \u2014 it happens. My TBR pile isn\u2019t particularly large at the moment. Not long ago I read a book by Camus in which he wrote about the inspiring power of The Brothers Karamazov. I also heard from … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Brothers Karamazov \u2022 Fyodor Dostoyevsky”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"Die Br\u00fcder Karamasow \u2022 Fjodor Dostojewski - lesestunden","description":"Vor einiger Zeit war ich ein wenig ratlos, zu was f\u00fcr einem Buch ich greifen sollte, was zuweilen vorkommt. Mein Stapel ungelesener B\u00fccher ist derzeit nicht son"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,20],"tags":[270,268],"class_list":["post-10019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classics","category-reviews","tag-anaconda-verlag","tag-fjodor-dostojewski"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/die_brueder_karamasow_1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}