The Brothers Karamazov
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
The Brothers Karamazov (Russian: Братья Карамазовы) is the final novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, and is generally considered the culmination of his life's work. The book portrays a parricide in which each of a murdered man's sons share a varying degree of complicity. The Brothers Karamazov is a passionate philosophical novel that explores deep into the ethical debates of God, free will, and morality. It is a spiritual drama of moral struggles concerning faith, doubt, reason, and modern Russia. Since its publication, it has been acclaimed all over the world by thinkers as diverse as Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, and Pope Benedict XVI as one of the supreme achievements in literature.
(Summary by Wikipedia) (37 hr 55 min)
Chapters
Reviews
Diana
There a couple readers who, while I appreciate the effort they put in, need to have their chapters re-recorded. There's one that has a terribly distracting electronic noise in the background. There are a couple whose pronunciations are WAY off. There is one who seemed to read the chapter in chunks and you can hear his voice and background noises go in and out with poor editing. And more. BUT, there are a couple readers who are truly delightful to listen to, and in my opinion they made it worth trudging through the others. If you don't have time/whatnot to sit down and read the book, this free version will do the trick. I'm pretty sure after hearing it, I'll take the time to sit down and read and mull it over myself. It really is a great story!
Good Reading, Great Story
Kevint60
This story has been way down on my 'bucket list' for 40 years, but never rising up with any urgency. So I am grateful and delighted to discover this well done reading of the Brothers Karamazov which has opened up the complexity and humanness of this novel to me. It reminds me of reading Dr. Zhivago years ago, both books breakthrough to grab the reader no matter what country you come from. And what characters! The large download count is a clue to how good this reading is, just surprised that no one has bothered to come back and review it. (I'm only 1/4 of the way into the book so maybe the readers are not as good further on, I promise to come back and report).
sarah bean is an excellent reader
A LibriVox Listener
it is a shame she doesnt read the whole book
Great story let down by inconsistent reading quality
A LibriVox Listener
Had the story not been so engaging, I would have stopped listening a long time ago; I'm roughly halfway through the book. The quality of some of the reading is so poor that only the quality of the story pushes you to persevere through the chapter in the hope that the next reader is better. I know that this is provided free of charge, but still it is a shame to spoil such a great classic with poor quality reading. Of course some of the readers are excellent, but as another reviewer has commented, it would be well worth getting the poorly read/recorded chapters re-recorded.
Good book, but find a different version.
Rick W.
Dostoyevsky's insight into the human condition is humbling. You will be able to identify with the characters, because you have thought their thoughts a thousand times. it just goes to show how time and culture may pass but the human condition remains the same. I have to say however, that some of these readers are terrible, and significantly detract from the beauty of this book with their readings. I hope that there is another, better entity put forth soon.
Not bad if you like long books with little action
Teichert
The story: Very long and detailed with plenty of elements that, in hindsight, seem completely unnecessary. But for all its wordiness, it wasn't bad. It was kind of fun to be drawn so deeply into a relatively mundane story. People describe this book as a "whodunnit" mystery, but I really disagree. The murder in question doesn't occur until over halfway through the story (keep in mind that it's 96 chapters long). There are very few real clues that the reader can put together and . . . (see spoiler below) Even so, I enjoyed this much more than Tolstoy's War and Peace. The narration: Because this book is so long, there are many different narrators. Some are quite good while others are . . . less skilled. Happily, the majority of chapters are read by the better narrators. Spoiler: . . . the true murderer is never revealed to the general public! Only one character hears him admit to killing the guy and then the murderer kills himself and the guy he told gets "brain fever" and no one believes what he says.
beautiful book, I learned so much
Bo Bo
I have always loved Tolstoy but this was my first hand at Dostoyesky. He is a master character builder who keeps you on the edge of your seat by showing you compelling contrast between the three brothers. At this time in Russia, upperclass people were beginning to doubt the existence of God, and this played into each of the brothers morality in very human and yet unexpected ways. if u are ready to commit to almost 2 days straight of audio booking it's worth it.
Remarkable creation amongst novels
Robert from Poland
If you had not had a chance before to read Brothers Karamazov, do not think about any other novel you can listen thanks to Librivox' volunteers but pick this one. You will be amazed how detailed, modern, scientific and well written this novel is. I would also say that volunteers whih had read this book had done their job nicely and most of them help i embarking on a journey down through man's conciousness and subconciousness whih could be so vividly observed in this Dostoyevsky magnificent work.