Roof Beam Reader
Adam Burgess
November’s Classic: The Brothers Karamazov
As we wrap-up October and our latest classic, Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, it’s time to start planning for November! This time, I chose a new-to-me book that has been on my TBR pile (and my Classics Club list) for years . . . The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky!
This is a long book, and the Russians always seem intimidating, but what I have read of Dostoevsky has always qualified as a “page-turner,” to me, so I’m hoping a month is more than doable. We Americans also have the Thanksgiving holiday in late-November, so hopefully anyone participating can spend a few of those days reading this classic tome.
Don’t forget: We have a Goodreads group! And we’re using #CBAM2017 to chat on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
About the Book:
The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the “wicked and sentimental”
Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons―the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy, red-cheeked young novice Alyosha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky portrays the whole of Russian life, is social and spiritual striving, in what was both the golden age and a tragic turning point in Russian culture.
This award-winning translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky remains true to the verbal inventiveness of Dostoevsky’s prose, preserving the multiple voices, the humor, and the surprising modernity of the original. It is an achievement worthy of Dostoevsky’s last and greatest novel.
Schedule:
- November 1st: Begin reading
- November 15th: Mid-point Check-In
- November 30th: Final Thoughts
Feel free to read at your own pace, post at your own pace (or not at all), and drop by to comment/chat about the book at any point. The schedule above is just the one I plan to use in order to keep myself organized and to provide some standard points and places for anyone who is reading along to get together and chat.
Roof Beam Reader 
Enjoy! I loved this on my read of it, but not this translation I hasten to add. I read David McDuff’s and found it excellent.
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I read this one, with this translation, and really liked it, though I took about 11 months to go through it. I would get through a part and put it down for a while. This is one I would love to take a class on. There are metephors and symbolism and lots to talk about. There was one part that sort of made my eyes gloss over and at first the Russian nicknames were confusing but I caught on eventually. It would probably be better if the reader has some knowledge of what was going on in Russia at the time but I enjoyed it without the benefit of knowing. I hope you enjoy it!
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If the ultimate test of a great novel is the enduring sense of having undergone a vital and lasting experience in the reading of it, then The Brothers Karamazov deserves a place among the few supreme novels of world literature.
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