The Brothers Karamazov (Братья Карамазовы in Russian) is the last novel of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was written mostly at the resort Staraya Russa, which is also the main setting for the novel. Having been serialized in The Russian Herald (1879), it was first published in as a separate book in 1880.

The Brothers Karamazov is the story of three brothers widely different in character — Dmitrii, Ivan, and Aleksei (called by his nickname, Alyosha). The main plot of the story centers on the trial of the eldest son, Dmitrii, who is accused of murdering his father, Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov.

Dmitrii, or more familiarily Mitya, is a passionate, impulsive career soldier. He was the oldest of the three and has incurred great debt because of his behavior during his enlistment. His mother had left him money when she died, but his father Fyodor tricked Dmitrii, leaving him in debt to his father. Dmitrii refuses to admit it and insists that Fyodor still owes him inheritance. Dmitrii and Fyodor's main spat in the book is over a woman named Grushenka, a wild one who causes Dmitrii to break his engagement with Katerina (though really it's Dmitrii's fault that he breaks the engagement). He ends up with Grushenka at the end, after she had left with a man from her past whom she thought she loved.

Ivan, also Vanya, is a cynical intellectual and an accomplished writer. He is Fyodor's second son, the first by Fyodor's wife Sonya. At the beginning of the book he seems cold and distant, though we later realize it is because of other circumstances, such as his illness (which causes him to have delusions of the devil) and his anger at Dmitrii's treatment of Katerina, whom he loves. Smerdyakov says that it is his fault he killed Fyodor, and that Ivan's nihilist rhetoric inspired Smerdyakov to kill him. But before Ivan can get Smerdyakov to confess to the people and save Dmitrii, Smerdyakov kills himself.

Alexei, mostly referred to by the diminutive Alyosha, hopes to enter the monastery led by his beloved elder, Zosima. He is the youngest brother and loved the most by all, even Fyodor. He is very religious, but his elder instructs him to leave the monastery before he dies, so that Alyosha can marry and live his life. He loves children and even acts as mediator for some local children embroiled in problem caused at least somewhat by Dmitrii's inappropriate behavior towards a particularly impoverished boy's father. He also helps mediate the Karamzovs' problems. In fact, some argue that Alyosha is the sole Karamazov unaffected by the "black streak" that runs in the family, though the opposite case could be made and the same case could even be made for Ivan.

Dmitrii and his father become entangled in a bitter inheritance dispute rooted in their jealousy over Grushenka, and the son publically threatens to murder his father. When the old man turns up dead, everyone suspects him immediately. The real culprit, however, is Pavel Fyodorovich Smerdyakov, Fyodor's cook and illegitimate son, the fourth Karamazov brother. Smerdyakov confesses his crime to Ivan before committing suicide.

Narrated by a fictional, nameless character who lives in the same town as the Karamazovs, the novel is long and contains numerous flashbacks, side-stories, and segments devoted to certain characters, in typical Dostoyevskian fashion. It contains The Grand Inquisitor, a "poem" Ivan tells to Alyosha, which has since taken on a life of its own.

Widely considered Dostoyevsky's greatest novel and one of the world's literary masterpieces, The Brothers Karamazov has spawned a number of related films, mini-series, and plays and also inspired the creation of the juggling troupe, The Flying Karamazov Brothers .

As the original novel was written in Russian, there have been several English translations of it. The most widely-read of these may still be that of Constance Garnett, who was the first English translator for the works of Dostoyevsky, though the translation written by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is becoming quite popular.

External links

• Who's Who in the Brothers Karamazov, a cast of characters