Scan barcode
A review by salemlockheart
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
5.0
"The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man."
there are no words to describe how i feel about this book. i'll start by saying that this is the longest i've ever taken to read any novel, ever. (nine entire months). it was a long process, though it was as hard as it was rewarding, as it always is with dostoevsky's work.
this book was long. very long. but it was perfect. when i first started it, i was intimidated. it's not the longest book i've ever read, but it's the longest classic i've ever read. once i got to the end of the book, i wanted more. it felt like 400,000 words wasn't enough. what about ivan and dmitri and katya?
there are a lot of questions i had that went unanswered, though i know it was purposeful. this book was incredible. i don't want to say that it changed my life, but i really feel like it did. (let me be dramatic). i'm going to lay awake at night and think about ivan. this book is going to be ingrained into my skull.
i particularly liked alyosha and ivan's relationship. alyosha as the incredibly religious god-sees-all type, and ivan as the; there is no god. if there is a god, he is cruel and unjust and undeserving of worship.
"I think the devil doesn't exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness."
i saw a lot of myself in a lot of these characters. minus the murdering their father... obviously. but ivan and dmitri's hatred for theirs was something i felt personally. i know there's nothing that can be said that hasn't been said already, but wow.
i had a lot of fun annotating this book. unpacking alyosha's relationship with his father was interesting, and in turn unpacking ivan's relationship with smerdyakov. doestoevsky puts so much thought into fleshing out every character he writes. giving them their own moral compass, and ideals, and wants, and needs, etc. it never fails to amaze me.
there are no words to describe how i feel about this book. i'll start by saying that this is the longest i've ever taken to read any novel, ever. (nine entire months). it was a long process, though it was as hard as it was rewarding, as it always is with dostoevsky's work.
this book was long. very long. but it was perfect. when i first started it, i was intimidated. it's not the longest book i've ever read, but it's the longest classic i've ever read. once i got to the end of the book, i wanted more. it felt like 400,000 words wasn't enough. what about ivan and dmitri and katya?
there are a lot of questions i had that went unanswered, though i know it was purposeful. this book was incredible. i don't want to say that it changed my life, but i really feel like it did. (let me be dramatic). i'm going to lay awake at night and think about ivan. this book is going to be ingrained into my skull.
i particularly liked alyosha and ivan's relationship. alyosha as the incredibly religious god-sees-all type, and ivan as the; there is no god. if there is a god, he is cruel and unjust and undeserving of worship.
"I think the devil doesn't exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness."
i saw a lot of myself in a lot of these characters. minus the murdering their father... obviously. but ivan and dmitri's hatred for theirs was something i felt personally. i know there's nothing that can be said that hasn't been said already, but wow.
i had a lot of fun annotating this book. unpacking alyosha's relationship with his father was interesting, and in turn unpacking ivan's relationship with smerdyakov. doestoevsky puts so much thought into fleshing out every character he writes. giving them their own moral compass, and ideals, and wants, and needs, etc. it never fails to amaze me.