40 h 1 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A father is murdered, and three brothers face questions no verdict can settle.
In a provincial Russian town, Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov turns family life into a battle over money, desire and old wounds. His son Dmitri wants his inheritance and loves Grushenka, the woman his father also pursues. When Fyodor is found murdered, suspicion pulls the brothers into a search for truth.
In The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky makes ideas as urgent as the crime. Dmitri follows passion, Ivan challenges belief in a world of suffering, and Alyosha seeks a life of faith and active love. Their arguments reach beyond who commits a crime to what people owe one another.
What you’ll discover
- A family at war Enter quarrels where inheritance, wounded pride and desire make every encounter feel ready to break.
- Three ways to live Follow brothers whose conflicting choices give passion, reason and faith a vivid human face.
- The burden of freedom Encounter Ivan's imagined Grand Inquisitor and unsettling questions about freedom, belief and human need.
- Love put to work Meet Father Zosima, whose teachings ask what responsibility for other people means in daily life.
- Guilt beyond the courtroom Feel the tension between the search for a murderer and the harder question of shared responsibility.
Is it for you?
This book suits readers who like big stories where ideas matter as much as plot, and who enjoy characters who argue, confess and surprise themselves. It is also for anyone curious about faith and doubt. If you want a quick, light read, it may feel heavy and slow.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A shameless father and three neglected sons
- Three brothers, three ways of living
- The elder Zosima and the disastrous family meeting
- Money, jealousy and a fight over one woman
- Ivan rebels against a world with suffering in it
- The Grand Inquisitor and the burden of freedom
- Zosima's answer: love in action and shared guilt
- What the story is really about: guilt, freedom and faith
- How the novel is told: voices, scandal and ideas in action
Who’s who
- Fyodor Pavlovich KaramazovThe greedy, scheming father who plays the clown, quarrels with his eldest son over money, and chases the same woman as he does.
- Dmitri KaramazovThe eldest son, a passionate former officer, deep in debt and in love, who wants his inheritance and his honor at the same time.
- Ivan KaramazovThe middle son, a brilliant, proud thinker who cannot reconcile his love of life with his anger at the suffering in the world.
- Alyosha KaramazovThe youngest son, a kind novice who loves his teacher and is sent out into the world to help his family.
- Father ZosimaAn elder at the monastery, respected for his wisdom, who teaches that all people are responsible for one another and must love actively.
- GrushenkaA spirited, independent young woman of the town, desired by both father and son, who is more thoughtful than her reputation suggests.
- Katerina IvanovnaA proud, educated young woman engaged to Dmitri, who is bound to him by gratitude, duty and wounded pride.
- SmerdyakovThe sullen servant in Fyodor's house, rumored to be his son, who listens closely and says little.
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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The Brothers Karamazov
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky· 1880
A father's murder draws three brothers into questions of guilt.
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Language: Deutsch
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
A shameless father and three neglected sons
The story opens with Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, a landowner in his fifties who has made his money by cunning and who lives by appetite. He has been married twice, and he has treated both wives and all his children with carelessness. After his wives die, the boys are passed to relatives and servants, and he hardly seems to notice. When the novel begins they are grown, and each one has returned to the town for his own reasons.
The narrator tells us at once that Fyodor is a buffoon. He plays the fool in company, mocks everyone, and seems to enjoy being despised. Yet behind the jokes there is a hunger for attention, and a kind of self-disgust that makes him worse. He is a man who tells lies even when the truth would serve him better.
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The author
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
1821–1881 · Russian novelist
Fyodor Dostoyevsky was a Russian novelist born in Moscow in 1821. He lived in Saint Petersburg and spent years in Siberia after his arrest in 1849. He wrote Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1868–1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880). He died in Saint Petersburg in 1881.
“Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams.”
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What is The Brothers Karamazov about?
It follows the three sons of a greedy, shameless landowner, Fyodor Karamazov. A fight over money and a woman exposes their rivalries, and the story turns into a deep debate about God, suffering, guilt and free will.
Who are the Karamazov brothers?
They are Dmitri, a passionate former officer, Ivan, a rational and tormented intellectual, and Alyosha, a gentle novice at a monastery. Smerdyakov, a servant rumored to be Fyodor's illegitimate son, is sometimes called a fourth brother.
What is the Grand Inquisitor chapter?
It is a poem Ivan invents and tells Alyosha. Christ returns to Seville and is arrested by an old cardinal, who argues that people cannot bear freedom and need bread, mystery and authority instead.
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