Brothers Karamazov (NCE) (Norton Critical Editions) - Softcover

Dostoevsky, F

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393092143 ISBN 13: 9780393092141

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co., 1976

Synopsis

The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky's crowning achievement, is a tale of patricide and family rivalry that embodies the moral and spiritual dissolution of an entire society (Russia in the 1870s). It created a national furor comparable only to the excitement stirred by the publication, in 1866, of Crime and Punishment. To Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov captured the quintessence of Russian character in all its exaltation, compassion, and profligacy. Significantly, the book was on Tolstoy's bedside table when he died. Readers in every language have since accepted Dostoevsky's own evaluation of this work and have gone further by proclaiming it one of the few great novels of all ages and countries.

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Review:

[Dostoevsky is] at once the most literary and compulsively readable of novelists we continue to regard as great . . . ;The Brothers Karamazov; stands as the culmination of his art-his last, longest, richest, and most capacious book. [This] scrupulous rendition can only be welcomed. It returns us to a work we thought we knew, subtly altered and so made new again. - Washington Post Book World; A miracle . . . Every page of the new Karamazov is a permanent standard, and an inspiration.;The Times; (London) ; One finally gets the musical whole of Dostoevsky's original. -New York Times Book Review. Absolutely faithful . . . Fulfills in remarkable measure most of the criteria for an ideal translation . . . The stylistic accuracy and versatility of registers used . . . bring out the richness and depth of the original in a way similar to a faithful and sensitive restoration of a painting.; -The Independent. It may well be that Dostoevsky's [world], with all its resourceful energies of life and language, is only now-and through the medium of [this] new translation-beginning to come home to the English-speaking reader - New York Review of Books. Heartily recommended to any reader who wishes to come as close to Dostoevsky's Russian as it is possible.; - Joseph Frank, Princeton University With an Introduction by Malcolm V. Jones --Washington Post Book

From the Back Cover:

Completed only a few months before the author's death, The Brothers Karamazov is Dostoyevsky's largest, most expansive, most life-embracing work. Filled with human passions―lust, greed, love, jealousy, sorrow, and humor―the book is also infused with moral issues and the issue of collective guilt.
As in many of Dostoyevsky's novels, the plot centers on a murder. Three brothers, different in character but bound by their ancestry, are drawn into the crime's vortex: Dmitri, a young officer utterly unrestrained in love, hatred, jealousy, and generosity; Ivan, an intellectual capable of delivering impromptu disquisitions about good and evil, God, and the devil; and Alyosha, the youngest brother, preternaturally patient, kind, and loving. Part mystery, part profound philosophical and theological debate, The Brothers Karamazov represents the culmination of Dostoyevsky's life's work and ranks among the greatest novels of all time.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.
• Publication date: 1976
• ISBN 10: 0393092143
• ISBN 13: 9780393092141
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 912