I Finished Reading The Brothers Karamazov

Added: 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]There is a book that Sigmund Freud said that it [music] is the greatest book ever written. Albert Einstein had this book on his desk. The book is The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky.

[00:00:09][music] Hi everyone, welcome to Kitabi Cabins. I'm Kritika and we are going to talk about the [music] art and the artist today. Before I jump on to this book and what it is about, I think it is very essential to know a little bit about Dostoevsky and what made [music] him create what he did in his life. The year is 1849. Dostoevsky [music] is 28 and he is arrested for being a part of this radical reading group. He's taken to a public square with a hood over his head. It's his death sentence. Suddenly a messenger comes saying that he is pardoned. It is said that this was actually [music] a psychological punishment for these people. He was never meant to be executed. This has to has an impact over a person's life. He did serve 4 years in Siberian prison and when he came out of it, he was very sensitive towards grief and suffering.

[00:00:58]He had completely different religious thoughts and political ideologies. All of his work reflects that. The Brothers Karamazov is the last book that he ever wrote. Apart from being in prison and seeing so many hardships around, he got addicted to gambling. He had epilepsy seizures throughout his life. He lost his son.

[00:01:18]And in Brothers Karamazov, you can see a summarized version of the events of [music] his life. That's why it's a little bit important to know what happened with Dostoevsky. The plot is very simple. The plot is family drama.

[00:01:30]There is a courtroom trial. There is a murder mystery. A father and a son are in love with the same person. There is an emotional and a psychological duel that is happening. Underlining this basic premise lies a stubborn, very significant, unflinching argument on a lot of questions. He's questioning that does free will really exist? Does God exist? Can goodness exist with all the suffering that there is in world? Can a truly love someone even after knowing their true colors? And he is not just letting his characters talk, they are arguing. They are arguing for continuously for 20 pages. They are having conversations. They are giving monologues. And he's dissecting every possible perspective that a person can have. Coming to the characters of the book, the book exists because this character Fyodor [music] Pavlovich Karamazov exists. He was incapable of loving. He was incapable of maintaining a true honest relationship with anyone, be it friends or his wife or his children. He has three sons and one illegitimate son. The legitimacy of the fourth son is never confirmed throughout this book. The first son, Dmitri, also called Mitya, is the closest to Fyodor that a [music] son can get. He also reminded me a lot of the character from White Nights. He lives in present tense.

[00:02:50]He feels fully. He expresses fully. He is loud. He is explosive. He is self-destructive. A lot of qualities that you see in Fyodor, his father, as well. And I do wonder why he named Pavlovich, a very repulsive character in literature, [music] after his own name. The other two sons were from Fyodor Pavlovich's second wife, Ivan and Alyosha. Alyosha also called Alexis. And this is what Dostoevsky has done. Like what an absence of father can do to a child. He has created four different children and he has given characteristics to each of them. One is seeking out love constantly [music] and he feels that he is unloved.

[00:03:29]So, he's going out of his way to prove to the women in his life that he can be loved and he can live up to the expectations. One of the characters, Ivan, one of the sons, only believes in rationality. He only believes in the intellectual thought. He only believes uh that there is a right and wrong and he does not believe in the gray area.

[00:03:47]While you have the other son who has gone through a spiritual path, Alyosha, Alexi. The fourth son, thinks that [music] he's unworthy of everything because A, he was never really claimed.

[00:03:57]So, his unworthiness [music] is the cause of all the actions that he takes in his life. And when I said that Fyodor named one of his most arrogant and repulsive characters after his own name, I also want to talk about the son that he named Alyosha. Dostoevsky's own son was called Alyosha, who he lost 2 years before he started this book. This character of his is sort of considered as an afterlife [music] to his own son, and Dostoevsky was planning to have multiple parts of this book. By the way, this was not supposed to be just one book. Next book was totally dedicated to Alyosha, who he thought that is the actual hero [music] of this book. And he is very un-hero-like. His complexity lies in the simplicity. He is not fidgety about things as other brothers are. Anyway, after these characters, here's my pitch to you that why you should read this book. It has the drama, it has the literature, it has so many symbolisms, so many themes, so many arguments that you can take away from. Yes, but let me break down this for you point by point.

[00:05:03][music] First, do it for the attention span, man. This 850-page novel, once you complete it, you'll feel good about yourself. And I myself was struggling with digital consumption a lot. I was scrolling reels and reading conspiracy theories on Reddit. I was spending unhealthy amount of time on that. And this book demands your attention. You cannot skim past even two lines.

[00:05:25]Dostoevsky demands you to be present word by word. He sort of takes offense if you're not paying paying [music] attention to what he has written. Second one, join the elite club, man. Not many people in this world have read this book. [music] You know what? Who has read this book? Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Nietzsche, Albert Camus, D.H.

[00:05:45]Lawrence. Be a part of that and not just for the sake of it, but you can be a part of lot of conversations once you read this book because it opens a lot of doors. Third point is that something that only classics can give you. [music] When you have the bandwidth of writing such a huge novel, you also mean that you are going to explore interpersonal relationships of the character. [music] You will see that dynamics are changing with every conversation, with every agreement and disagreement. Fourth point, you will have thoughts for the rest of your life. I'm [music] not kidding. Albert Camus' work, The Rebel, was inspired by one single chapter of this book, which is The Grand Inquisitor. It is a very famous chapter.

[00:06:27]A lot of people have done research for decades and decades on this chapter. A lot of D.H. Lawrence's work is inspired by this chapter. Grand Inquisitor is, I think, a 20-page chapter where Ivan has written a prose poem, and he's narrating it to his brother Alyosha. It questions religion.

[00:06:45]faith. It questions that do people really want freedom? If freedom is given to you, would you be courageous enough to accept it? And he dwells in a lot of questions, and it has trickled down in literature, and a lot of people have used this to get inspiration from.

[00:07:00]Dostoevsky has written lines like these, [music] "Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is greater cause of suffering."

[00:07:10]How can you sleep after reading this?

[00:07:12]How? Fifth point, the book is fun. Yes, you'll get a lot of gossip. You'll get a lot of drama, but [music] something that you do not hear a lot, Dostoevsky can actually be funny, especially with the two characters, Fyodor, [music] the father, and Dmitri. They are absurdly hilarious, and you will find yourself laughing out loud even when the themes are [music] quite heavy. Now, I'm showing you this book again and again, and it can be overwhelming. It was for me. I did not pick this book solely out of fear that how am I going to go through this? [music] I've only read Dostoevsky's shorter work before, Dream of a Ridiculous Man or White Nights or Notes from Underground. So, I'll [music] try to recommend a few things that you can do and try to approach this novel or any novel that intimidates you. If you're reading something out of your language, especially [music] difficult languages where words are Fyodor Pavlovich, [music] which I'm sure I'm pronouncing wrong, and a lot of words which are similar as well. And in this book because people are familiar with each other, they are family members, so they are sometimes taking nicknames, they are taking pet [music] names, and sometimes calling each other by just the surname, and there are a lot of Karamazov in the family. So, it might get confusing as to what character is being referred to. I cannot [music] emphasize this enough, make notes. I finished it over the span of 1 year, so what I did was whenever I was reading, I [music] penned down a little bit of summary about the themes covered, the relationship >> [music] >> a new characters introduced, and what overall happened in those chapters. So, when I'm coming back and [music] reading, it's helpful. I can just get a quick recap and see what progress I made in the book. When it comes to reading classics, which are not from your language, it's important >> [music] >> to pick the right translation. A lot of Russian literature is translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky. They have captured the roughness, the absurdity, [music] the quickness of his words, the wittiness. It is the closest [music] to the actual piece of text that you can get. But if you want it to be more readable, if you want to consume it [music] first and then go into the difficult translations, then you can pick different versions of translations.

[00:09:22]It's up to you. Whichever suits your reading, [music] first choose that and then take a step forward. The last one I want to mention that do not be overwhelmed by symbolisms and themes that you're not familiar with. When you're reading such a dense [music] piece of text, there will be a lot of things that you're not familiar with. Maybe it's religion because there are very specific things [music] about religion mentioned. There are specific things about Russian politics and what was happening in the state [music] around that time, which you might not be aware with. So, you it's very tempting to go into the rabbit hole and you'll find yourself [music] reading random essays. It's fine if you can still come back to the book. Just come back to the book. And of course, if you get a good translation, if you get a good book, there'll always be footnotes [music] attached. There are like a little asterisk mark where the translators have given a few details as to [music] what the author is referencing here. Try all these practices and you will see that you are able to approach classics. I will end the book uh with one of my favorite lines. I have a longing for life and I go on living in spite of logic. Though I may not believe in the order of the universe, yet >> [music] >> I love the sticky little leaves as they open in spring. I love the blue sky. I love some people whom one loves, you know, sometimes without knowing why.

[00:10:41]It's quite an optimistic text out of the whole book and [music] it just ring a bell. If you've made it till this part of the video, I'm assuming that you are comfortable listening to people yap. And man, [music] Dostoevsky was the OG yapper. He has yapped on certain topics >> [music] >> for 20 pages straight. The book is divided into 12 parts and in the 12th part, it's a whole courtroom drama. And the judge had dissected the person on the trial, his personality, his childhood, what caused his [music] action, what what might not have caused his action. There is no single possibility that is missed [music] for the reader. Everything that you can think might have happened or would have happened is written in this book. So, read it if you're >> [music] >> comfortable with people yapping. Take a year, take a decade, who cares? Just make notes. [music] It will help you a lot and join the club. Thank you for watching. Thank you for [music] being here and I'll see you next time.