The Brothers Karamazov [Naxos AudioBooks Edition]

By: Constance Garnett - translator, Fyodor Dostoevsky

Narrated by: Constantine Gregory

Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a titanic figure among the world's great authors, and The Brothers Karamazov is often hailed as his finest novel. A masterpiece on many levels, it transcends the boundaries of a gripping murder mystery to become a moving account of the battle between love and hate, faith and despair, compassion and cruelty, good and evil.

Download the accompanying reference guide. Public Domain (P)2013 Naxos AudioBooks

Best "Karamazov" yet.

Constantine Gregory decided to give a reading of the Constance Garnett translation of "The Brothers Karamazov". Constance Garnett is no longer considered the best translator of Dostoevsky. She goes to great length to "pretty up" the rather rough and bumpy language of the original. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky’s new translation of "The Brothers Karamazov" is now regarded by most critics to be definitive as it does not try to mask Dostoyevskys idiosyncratic prose.

Gregory gives a rather calm and relaxed rendering of the work, which is nice in the long run.
My dream "audio" Karamazov would be David Horovitch narrating the Pevear and Volokhonsky’s translation.
However as it stands now, this version by Constantine Gregory is the best "Karamazov" available.

great reader

read it and heard audio, too. recommend that kindle book be downloaded at same time.

Philosophy, Religion and Romance

The Brothers Karamazov on audiobook allowed me to finally understand and enjoy a novel I've always wanted to read, but would always find confusing and cumbersome. I'd end up putting it aside after only a few chapters, confused by long Russian character names and endless philosophical arguments. It does start off slow as circumstances and characters are introduced, but becomes captivating as the plot begins to thicken. There is so much to be learned from the symbolic novel about people, life and the essence of good and evil. I enjoyed the book and was in the end captivated by those Russian brothers Karamazov!

Brilliant book, a pleasure to have it read to me

There isn’t much to add to what other people's wonderful reviews of the book already said. The book is brilliant, one of those books with ideas (a few months ago the Endpage in the New York Times Book Review had its writers talk about novels with ideas) - I like books with ideas, especially when they don't preach one set of ideas or one agenda, but present different views and show the difficulties in each view, which I think is the case in this book. Aside from the ideas and the well-crafted characters (I love books with intricate characters - rather than the rather shallow characters we find in so much current fiction), there is the story itself. A murder story, a courtroom drama - think of Perry Mason (if you go back that far). And I learned things I didn't know about how the legal system in Russia had some quite progressive concepts. Not what we think of as a "Russian court" from Communist days. So I don't know how the majority of cases were conducted during the period that the story depicts, but the fact that it is depicted as it was implies that at least there are concepts in place that are still not found in many countries.
The narrator (performance) only got 4 stars rather than 5 because, though he did a very good job, I've heard better, and at times I felt that there was not enough distinction among the various characters' voices (including the narrator's voice). From the context you could tell who is talking, but not always from the distinct voice.
I read about the various translations of this book. Though there is negative (and positive) critique of Constance Garnett's translation and many people prefer one of the newer translations (many say Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsk), without me having a side-by-side (or multi-column) set of versions, and, more important, without me being able to understand the Russian, I can't evaluate the translation that was used. But I didn't find anything particularly strange or out of place. In fact, because she referred to children as "kids" and "kiddies", I thought it sounded almost too contemporary, but maybe those terms were a good equivalent for the Russian. If you are looking for an audiobook version - and I find this a great pleasure to be read to - I don't think the translation should stand in your way.
I would like to comment about Dostoyevsky’s numerous references to Jews. I love 19th century literature, and I’m used to the pawnbroker, always being referred to as “the Jew” (a negative stereotype, of course – why not just say “a pawnbroker”?), the usurer, and other negative stereotypes. They are always troubling, but I accept it as part of the period, the attitudes of the period, and hope that intelligent readers (are there any other kind?) recognize these references as problematic symptoms of a period in history, as are derogatory references to other persecuted minority groups in what is otherwise great literature. In the case of The Brothers Karamazov, I found these references to be more prevalent than in other works, even of the same author. Particularly troubling is the question put to Alyosha about whether Jews kill a (presumably Christian) child at Easter, and his response “I don’t know”. Perhaps it could be said that Dostoyevsky is representing a character – a former monk who is ignorant of Judaism, which, of course, is totally realistic. Yes, even though that former monk is supposed to represent the conscience and charity of Christianity, that representation is laid bare – Christian love only goes so far. Learning other religions in theology school was not yet in vogue, and ecumenical conferences far from existence. But if Dostoyevsky does not believe this himself, one would hope he’d understand the danger of perpetuating such ideas. Books have been written about Dostoyevsky’s attitudes towards Jews, and literature scholars have various opinions about what the author himself actually thought. I wrote about this matter because any reader of Dostoyevsky should not take these expressions lightly, but should consider them and their impact in cultures, just as a reader should examine any bigotry expressed in literature and other arts.

An absolute classic for the bookworm

this book is a must-read/listen for any serious reader who is in need of a rollercoaster ride into the psyche.