The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821–1881) was born in Moscow into a large family of a doctor. At home, children were instilled with a love of literature: evening readings were organized, fairy tales told, and they were taught Latin, French, and Russian literature. After the death of their mother, their father sent the older boys to the Engineering School. Fyodor graduated from it in 1843, but he never showed interest in engineering — he preferred the path of a writer. His debut novel "Poor Folk" (1845) made the author famous as a "new Gogol." Over time, Dostoevsky gained wide recognition in literary circles and established communication with many cultural figures. He was described as well-read, gentle, and shy, and his prose was considered original and full of deep psychological insight. In 1849, the writer was arrested as a member of the Petrashevsky circle and sentenced to death. Only a few minutes before the execution, the prisoners were informed that the death sentence was replaced with hard labor. Thus, Dostoevsky ended up in the Omsk prison, where he spent the next four years under extremely harsh conditions. There, in the penal labor camp, he met Dmitry Ilyinsky, who received a terrible sentence for patricide, which, as it turned out later, he did not commit. The tragic story of the imprisoned man left a mark on the soul of the writer and later became the basis for the plot of his grand novel "The Brothers Karamazov."

"The Brothers Karamazov" (1880) not only became the last part of Dostoevsky's "great pentateuch," which also includes "Crime and Punishment," "The Idiot," "The Possessed," and "The Adolescent," but also the final work of Fyodor Mikhailovich, as the writer passed away shortly after the publication of the novel. At the center of the narrative is the Karamazov family: the father and three sons. Each of the brothers has his own vision of the world, his own moral compass, and his own path, but they all represent different facets of the so-called "Karamazovism." Family disputes and the investigation of a brutal murder intertwine in the pages of the novel with religious reflections and philosophical dilemmas. Researchers and fans of Fyodor Mikhailovich's work consider "The Brothers Karamazov" to be the pinnacle of his literary mastery. Among Dostoevsky's contemporaries, the novel caused a significant resonance and received mixed reviews, and in our time, "The Brothers Karamazov" is regularly staged, reissued in thousands of copies, and translated into foreign languages. In this edition, the text of the work is presented with illustrations by the talented Soviet and Russian artist Ilya Sergeyevich Glazunov (1930–2017).