The Brothers Karamazov

By: Fyodor Dostoevsky, David Magarshack - translator

Narrated by: Gabriel Woolf

Length: 37 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

The Brothers Karamazov is the final novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky and is generally considered the culmination of his life's work. Published in November 1880, Dostoevsky spent nearly two years writing the novel set in 19th-century Russia.

Fydor Karamazov, a mean and disreputable landowner, has three sons, Dmitry, a profligate army officer; Ivan, a writer with revolutionary ideas; and Alexey, a religious novice. A drama of patricide and fraternal jealousy unfolds, involving the questions of anarchism and atheism, and giving a portrait of Russian society in the turbulent 1870s.

Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky (1821 - 1881) was a Russian fiction writer, essayist, and philosopher whose works have been acclaimed all over the world by thinkers as diverse as Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein.

Please note: This is a vintage recording. The audio quality may not be up to modern day standards.

Translated by David Magarshack

Public Domain (P)2009 RNIB

Strong performance, good translation

Narrator of this piece is serious about executing a thorough cast performance, and his effort is fully endearing. Translation is not the same Grady, it is a very good and different style.

Great Narrating and Great Story!

I'm beginning to wonder whether some of the other reviewers listened to the same book that I did. For one, you only pay $5.50 (if you're a member) for almost 35 hours of reading so from the outset, you've already made a great investment. I like the narration having enjoyed Crime and Punishment under the narration of Charlton Griffin, I looked for someone whose pronunciation was just as crisp and precise. Gabriel Woolf's narration is the best of the lot in my opinion. It was only after I had listened to all of the other narrators that I realized the low price. I prefer British accents for European novels and Woolf's Russian pronunciation is believable. He understands that the novel is told from the POV of a monk who is trying at length to make sense of the events that have transpired in his town vis a vis the Karamazov family. The narrator's tone is very conversational as if expecting feedback from the listener and this really works for me. The presentation could have used the musical backdrop of stringed instruments as in the Crime and Punishment presentation I mentioned but at $5.50, I'm not complaining.

Fair reading. But seems hastily recorded.

It's a great story and considered a classic for a reason, but the recording as a whole seems either lazy or rushed. The reader has a beautiful voice - excellent tone and articulation - but there were MANY times during the reading where they probably should have stopped recording and tried it again. Instances of fumbled words, misspoken names, and, no kidding, times when the reader had some kind of gastric upset or something (suppressing a burp or cough?) at the mic and just recovered and kept going. The recording definitely could have used a second take at several spots.

Buzz Shepard

Good translation as far as I can tell. Older performance, spirited. a good reading. not over engineered, certainly. good match for a long work. A good listen.

great book

i think i grew into this book. i remember reading it in college and thinking, will it never end?

i love this reading of it. in fact, this reader has become one of my favorites. if you cannot excuse the occassional page turning, swallowing, and, yes, air in the breathing passage, don´t buy this book. because it does contain these little human imperfections. but, for me, i loved it. i felt like someone human was reading to me. but, it must be said, i am not one who likes the new modern slick productions you sometimes get when the reader is far more performing than reading.

when this book came to an end i just started again at the beginning and listened to it again. even after that it took me several days to find something else that could compare as an experience.

for this price, anyone can afford to give it a try, and i am really grateful to audibles for having some compaasion on my budget.

The Difference Lies in the Narration

There's a reason why Dostoevsky is regarded as one of the greatest writers in history, and one more favorable review won't change that. The book's characters and plot have so many different layers to them, that upon finishing the book, you find yourself thinking about this world that Dostoevsky has created and reveling in its masterful symmetry. Yet you don't crave more, because the author's plot ties up in a perfect ending that deliberately leaves some characters more vague and incomprehensible and other characters clearly laid out.

Yet lauding Dostoevsky's work is redundant at this point. I write this review for sensitive listeners who are looking for the best performance of the text. Gabriel Woolf brings life to the text like few other audio editions. I was impressed at his ability to make Fyodor Karamazov sound as terrible as his character is presented in the book. I'm sure it is not an easy task to formulate the perfect vocal rendition of each character (since the author is famous for creating incredibly complex and fascinating characters), so I applaud Woolf for his efforts.

If you are looking for an audiobook that will suck you up for the next few weeks of your life, this is the perfect book for you. The narrator taps into the emotional subtexts of each character's life, and it truly engages the reader.

Outstanding book !

If you could sum up The Brothers Karamazov in three words, what would they be?

A page turner.

What other book might you compare The Brothers Karamazov to and why?

I've never read anything like it.

What does Gabriel Woolf bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He knows this book. And does a great narration.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It definitely moved me.

Great book, great performance.

The reader does a good job of fleshing out the various moods and mannerisms of the characters through their dialog, which is so helpful in conveying the tone when the text might not otherwise convey it till the dialog was over.

Great voice acting of a classic novrl

Thoroughly enjoyed this thought-provoking novel, and the terrific job done by G. Woolf in narration.

The Brothers Karamozov

I've read the book, and purchased the audio so that I could hear it with all of the Russian names pronounced correctly (I made up the most improbably pronunciations on my own). The narrator was very good, a very listenable to voice, nice inflection, you can hear that he is interpreting the novel but is not out of sync with the tone of the writing. I would look for him as a reader on another novel.