The Brothers Karamazov, Parts I - III

Greetings Friends,

This book is extra credit:) I’m rereading The Brothers Karamazov, translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky. We’ll continue to catch up on the remainder of our 2024 reading list, and eventually have another member poll. I just want to offer an additional two meetups to discuss this classic that I read years ago, maybe in the 80s, the MacAndrew translation. (The Konstantin Mulchosky intro is very interesting.) All are welcome to join in regardless of translation. There’s a lot in this book that could go in different directions, but I’m hoping we can stay grounded in the text and focus on its existential, philosophical, and spiritual themes. I’ll post parts IV - Epilogue later.

Reviews
“[Dostoevsky is] at once the most literary and compulsively readable of novelists we continue to regard as great . . . The Brothers Karamazov stands as the culmination of his art--his last, longest, richest and most capacious book. [This] scrupulous rendition can only be welcomed. It returns to us a work we thought we knew, subtly altered and so made new again.” ―Donald Fanger, Washington Post Book World

“It may well be that Dostoevsky's [world], with all its resourceful energies of life and language, is only now--and through the medium of this translation--beginning to come home to the English-speaking reader.” ―John Bayley, The New York Review of Books

“Heartily recommended to any reader who wishes to come as close to Dostoevsky's Russian as it is possible.” ―Joseph Frank, Princeton University

“Far and away the best translation of Dostoevsky into English that I have seen . . . faithful . . . extremely readable . . . gripping.” ―Sidney Monas, University of Texas

“No reader who knows The Brothers Karamazov should ignore this magnificent translation. And no reader who doesn’t should wait any longer to acquaint himself with one of the peaks of modern fiction.” ―USA Today
About the Author
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-81) was a Russian writer of novels, short stories and essays. His most famous work includes Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov. He is considered to be one of Europe's major novelists.

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky were awarded the PEN/ Book-of-the-Month Translation Prize for The Brothers Karamazov and have also translated Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Notes from Underground, Demons, and The Idiot.

Karl Ove Knausgaard was born in Norway in 1968. My Struggle has won countless international literary awards and has been translated into at least fifteen languages. Knausgaard lives in Sweden with his wife and four children.