fyodor dostoevsky The Karamazov Brothers

[lunababymoonchild]

This was named The Karamazov Brothers on my copy (Wordsworth Classics) as opposed to the more usual The Brothers Karamazov and I've gone for the one-y-spelling of Dostoevsky because that too was on the book.

 

This was absolutely epic! Eight hundred and seventy pages of goodness. I struggled a lot with this and only managed 16 to 20 pages at a time (50 pages is my usual rate) and it took me a month and two days. 

 

The story of the Karamazov Brothers, of which there are three (and a possible fourth), and their father. Nineteenth Century wordy (think every eye-brow raise and every intake of breath) and formal prose - compared to today's fare - and was absolutely magnificent. I moved from e-book to paper and back again for a fortnight through this due to personal circumstances which I won't bore you with and that movement proved to be very interesting indeed. I was lucky that I had chosen the same translator, Constance Garnett, so that kept it consistent. I did check online notes for a while and the most useful part of that was the names of the characters and explaining, somewhat, why some of them had three, or in some cases more,  different names which did prove to be confusing especially at the beginning.

 

I chose the full unabridged version (both e-book and paper) and knew that it was long. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it.

[KEV67]

I have read that book. It was former Archbishop Rowan William's favourite book. He spoils the plot on YouTube. I liked Alexi, the youngest son, who was going to be a monk. I liked his mentor, Father Zosima. It cannot be easy to write about good people and make them interesting, but Dostoevsky does it. There is a film with William Shatner as Alexi, which does not sound like a recommendation.

[lunababymoonchild]

16 hours ago, KEV67 said:

I have read that book. It was former Archbishop Rowan William's favourite book. He spoils the plot on YouTube. I liked Alexi, the youngest son, who was going to be a monk. I liked his mentor, Father Zosima. It cannot be easy to write about good people and make them interesting, but Dostoevsky does it. There is a film with William Shatner as Alexi, which does not sound like a recommendation.

I'll have a look for the film, it sounds interesting.

[KEV67]

I agree the names in Russian novels can be confusing. Dostoevsky is not quite so confusing as Tolstoy in that regard. Nevertheless, everyone has at least three names and often a nickname as well. I do not know if nickname is the right word. Alexei is often called Alyosha, but maybe that is an alternative form, like Harry is for Henry, and Molly is for Mary.

 

I seem to remember there was a lot of cabbage pie in the book. It even inspired me to bake one, but it did not come out very well, because I rolled the pastry too thick.

 

There was the famous bit in which Ivan describes what would have happened if Jesus had come back to earth in Spain, but during the time of Spanish Inquisition. Ivan has a big brain, but he is a cold fish.