The Brothers Karamazov

I've never been a huge fan of Russian literature, and this book reminded me why. The Brothers Karamazov isn't so much a story as a lengthy disquisition on the Russian character and the issues of Dostoyevsky's day, detailed personality profiles, and digressions on every subject Dostoyevsky wanted to pursue, including free will, the existence of God, moral responsibility, and truth. It's a high-minded novel full of weighty intellectual themes and I could not help but appreciate the meticulous detail with which the author constructed every part of it from the events and familial and romantic relationships leading up to Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov's murder to the background histories of even the most minor characters. The problem is, Dostoyevsky spends entire chapters on things like the background histories of the most minor character. Half the book was one of the Karamazovs talking on and on uninterrupted to an audience as silent and passive as the reader/listener.

The skill of the author cannot be denied. The style is completely unlike modern literature, but Dostoyevsky makes every one of his characters so complex and complete that you wish more modern authors were as thorough (and indulged as much by their editors) in their creations. And you can sense the majesty of what Dostoyevsky was trying to accomplish -- he takes a bunch of different arguments and picks them apart from multiple points of view, letting the Karamazov brothers or secondary characters or even allegorical figures hash out everything the author is thinking (or arguing against) thoroughly and articulately.

So I guess that's a lot of words to say "It's Literature." I don't really feel anyone should force themselves to read books that don't interest them, but there is something to be said for knowing the books and the authors who influenced other great authors. That said, I can't exactly say this was a "fun" book, but you'll be glad you listened to it.

The narration of this classic book is both fluid [which is no small feat with all those Russian names!] and entertaining. A wonderful study and description of human nature as well as the idea that without God there is no moral foundation [or restraint] attending human actions. Highly recommended.

One of the best, for me. Some others had a problem with the narrator, but I have to disagree. To be honest, it is one of the best narration jobs I've heard on any audiobook. For me, the wonderful english accent and rough voice perfectly enhanced the world I believe Dostoyevski is trying to create in this novel.
I have to rate this one of the best audiobooks due to the combination of a wonderful novel and brilliant narration.

Like all of Dostoyevski's books, you get a certain "feel" when reading/listening. So I compare all of them especially concerning the characters.

I love the scenes in the Monastary at the begginning of the book.....I can almost see papa Karamazov's contorted face when I listen to Mr Davidson belt out his dialogue ...wonderful!

Hard to have the time to listen in one sitting, but even with the length of this, it was one of the fastest I've gone through.

Every so often, you hear a narration that takes a good novel to new heights....this is one of them. Bravo Mr Davidson.

My take is that this narrator is actually quite incredible. Much of the book is dialogue and I am amazed at the way the narrator jumps between characters - male, female, old, young, wise, foolish, etc - so effortlessly. In fact, he is able to maintain the tone and personality of the character with precision. The story is long and I greatly appreciated the narration. Listen to the sample and you will see what I mean.

This is an interesting story involving passionate characters that become absolutely vivid through the narration. The narrator switches between accents so seemlessly, you know who is speaking without being told. Wonderful story and very touching ending. I would suggest pulling up cast of characters on Wikipedia and writing down the various nicknames each character has or you may get confused in the beginning. I would not have enjoyed the book one tenth as much as the audible version, as the narrator had such a good sense of the character of each person in the story and really illustrated said character through his narration.

One of the best!

The description of the third brother, who is so compassionate.

Same...third brother.

I have bought many books here on Audible. I like the readings by Frederick Davidson. He brings the characters to life. Don't believe the reviews that "diss" him. I have many books which he narrates and he is magnificent in all of them!

After listening to over a hundred audio books, I've finally found a narration I just can't get past. Imagine a British Mr. Garrison from Southpark droning on with a stuffy nose.

It takes way too much conscious effort to hear the words through the narrators annoying accent. My violent hatred of this narration grew every time I had to rewind the book.

I love Russian literature, and Dostoevsky is my favorite Russian author. I looked forward to listening to this classic, but I couldn't make it past the first chapter because of the narration. Perhaps it's my ear, but the proper British accent of the narrator made the story so very, very dry and boring. It was a wasted credit for a great book. (I've since read it.) I'll know better next time to listen to a sample of the narration before purchasing.

Book: I will comment on the book. it is a classic.

Reader: The performance was very good. I read some of the reviews and I do not agree with the comments that the reader was haughty and annoying. I thought he captured the characters well. Some of the characters were typical of the period: emotional, flighty, etc.

Production: I appreciate that there was announcement of the beginning and end of the parts.

The big issue (as you can see from other reviews) in the narrator. For the first hour or so, until it became familiar, it was distracting and excruciating -- the narration sounded very upper class British, snobbish, bored and just a little bit peeved to be telling the story. Also, there is a sing-song quality to the intonations, and some of the intonation patterns are repeated to the point where familiarity becomes a bit tedious.

Oddly enough, when the narrator does characters, these problems all disappear and the voices sound appropriate for the persons portrayed. But then he switches back to the "narrator" voice, which doesn't sound at all like one of the Karamazovs' neighbors.