The Brothers Karamazov
This book amazed me on so many levels... without a doubt
Dostoevsky is the master of identifying the
deeper thoughts and feelings which are common to all people, and
then putting them into a meaningful story.
First published in 1879, this book is a timeless classic able to
transcend the Russian culture from which it originated and speak to
generations of people around the world. Each time I picked it up I
felt it was an honor to read an author possessing such a tremendous
ability to write so truthfully about the difficulties of life.
The following are some of parts of the book I noted, hoping to give
a sample of why I think this is such a special work:
- In this passage he describes a poor man struggling with pride after being offered a large charitable sum of money - ecstatic at first, followed by indignant anger of facing humility, and eventually a rational acceptance of a gift which will truly bless his family.
- Here is a passage where Dostoevsky describes the stream of thought happening while Alyosha attempts to pray. I note this because many times when I try to pray my mind wanders very similar to this - so surprising to read of it happening to someone else!
- This is about a teenager afraid of what others think about him when he plays with little children. But what's most interesting is Dostoevsky's view of adults who play and pretend.
- Here Dostoevsky reveals the battle of insecurity within even the most confident people.
- In this example Dmitri (Mitya) is completely humiliated, particularly about his toes, when required to take off his clothing for examination while being arrested.
UNIQUE STORIES
It is a very unique story with many unusual situations:
- A duel between a repentant man and the one he has insulted.
- The complex relationships emerging from formal public marriage agreements in contrast with hidden desires of the heart.
- Ivan's story about Jesus returning to earth a second time and being scolded by the head of the Spanish Inquisition.
- Ivan's hallucinations of an argument he has with a demon about whether or not the demon really exists.
- And of course, the main story about Dmitri, who is unjustly accused and tried for the murder of his father.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Another thought that occurred to me was that this is originally written in RUSSIAN... which obviously means I've read an English translation. I didn't realize there are several translations to choose from and some consider one better than the others.
I enjoyed this translation - the publisher is "Barnes and Noble Classics" but it says it was translated by Constance Garnett in 1912. Still, it makes you wonder how much better it is if one could read Russian.
RUSSIAN CULTURE
I gained a huge appreciation for the Russian culture, which was a big contrast with the "cold war" images of our modern Soviet impressions. Russians are very proud people with an enormous Christian heritage.
I guess this is one of the things the Soviets attempted to eliminate; but I had no idea how strong their faith was in God.
FORMALITY VS. FAMILIARITY
This point is more a minor pet peeve of mine than anything else. Many movies today attempt to tell stories from earlier times, however they abandon all public formalities and adopt a modern "familiarity" between characters. Now I realize this is a book, not a movie, and even it is a fictional account written in an "ideal" world.
But public formality in this book is strong and I like that... a person's dignity is maintained by the formal address they are granted in public.
This is hard to describe... maybe a good example is in how we address each other today. When introduced to someone I've just met it is common to call them by their first name. But years ago this would be insulting - if you did not know someone very well they were called Mr. Smith or Miss Jones, but never by their first name unless you knew them well.
LONG-HAND VS. WORD PROCESSORS
It was written in 1800's w/out the benefit of computerized word processors... we are SO spoiled. I feel this way about all the earlier authors - typing on a computer is so much easier along with the benefits of cut and paste, spell check, grammar check, etc.
I simply cannot imagine writing SEVEN HUNDRED PAGES long-hand, and that's not even taking into consideration the number of re-writes or editing that occurred.
SELECTIONS OF THE TEXT
Alyosha describing what happened when he tried to deliver
Katerina's gift to the captain:
"To begin with, he was sore at having been so glad of the money in
my presence and not having concealed it from me. If he had been
pleased, but not so much; if he had not shown it: if he had begun
affecting scruples and difficulties, as other people do when they
take money, he might still endure to take it. But he was too
genuinely delighted, and that was mortifying. Ah, Lise, he is a good
and truthful man - that's the worst of the whole business. All the
while he talked, his voice was so weak, so broken, he talked so
fast, so fast, he kept laughing such a laugh, or perhaps he was
crying - yes, I am sure he was crying, he was so delighted - and he
talked about his daughters - and about the situation he could get in
another town... And when he had poured out his heart, he felt
ashamed at having shown me his inmost soul like that, So he began to
hate me at once. He is one of those awfully sensitive poor people.
What had made him feel most ashamed was that he had given in too
soon and accepted me as a friend, you see. At first he almost flew
at me and tried to intimidate me, but as soon as he saw the money he
had begun embracing me; he kept touching me with his hands. This
must have been how he came to feel it all so humiliating, and then I
made that blunder, a very important one. I suddenly said to him that
if he had not money enough to move to another town, we would give it
to him, and, indeed, I myself would give him as much as he wanted
out of my own money. That struck him all at once. Why, he thought,
did I put myself forward to help him? You know, Lise, it's awfully
hard for a man who has been injured, when other people look at him
as though they were his benefactors... I've heard that; Father
Zossima told me so. I don't know how to put it, but I have often
seen it myself. And I feel like that myself too. And the worst of it
was that though he did not know, up to the very last minute, that he
would trample the money, he had a kind of presentiment of it, I am
sure of that. That's just what made him so ecstatic, that he had
that presentiment... And though it's so dreadful, it's all the best.
In fact, I believe nothing better could have happened.
Alyosha attempting to pray while
Father Paissy performs the ceremonial reading of the Gospels over the deceased body of Father Zossima:
But when he began to pray, he passed suddenly to something else, and
sank into thought, forgetting both the prayer and what had
interrupted it. He began listening to what Father Paissy was
reading, but worn out with exhaustion he gradually began to doze.
"And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee;"
read Father Paissy. "And the mother of Jesus was there; And
both Jesus was called, and his disciples to the marriage."
"Marriage? What's that... A marriage!" floated
whirling through Alyosha's mind. "There is happiness for her, too...
She has gone to the feast... No, she has not taken the knife... That
was only a tragic phrase... Well... tragic phrases should be
forgiven, they must be. Tragic phrases comfort the heart... Without
them, sorrow would be too heavy for men to bear. Rakitin has gone
off to the back-alley. As long as Rakitin broods over his wrongs, he
will always go off to the back-alley... But the high road... The
road is wide and straight and bright as crystal, and the sun is at
the end of it... Ah!... What's being read?..."
"And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him;
'They have no wine' "... Alyosha heard.
"Ah, yes, I was missing that, and I didn't want to miss it, I love
that passage: it's Cana of Galilee, the first miracle... Ah, that
miracle! Ah, that sweet miracle! It was not men's grief, but their
joy Christ visited, He worked His first miracle to help men's
gladness... 'He who loves men loves their gladness, too'... He was
always repeating that, it was one of his leading ideas... 'There's
no living without joy,' Mitya says... Yes, Mitya... 'Everything that
is try and good is always full of forgiveness,' he uses to say that
too..."
Alyosha and Kolya discuss playing
with children:
"I'll let him go in now and perhaps it will amuse Ilusha more than
the mastiff pup. Wait a bit, Karamazov, you will know something in a
minute. But, I say, I am keeping you here!" Kolya cried suddenly.
"You've no overcoat on in this bitter cold. You see what an egoist I
am. Oh, we are all egoists, Karamazov!"
"Don't trouble; it is cold, but I don't often catch cold. Let us go
in though, and, by the way, what is our name? I know you are called
Kolya, but what else?"
"Nikolay - Nikolay Ivanovitch Krassotkin, or, as they say in
official documents 'Krassotkin son.'" Kolya laughed for some reason,
but added suddenly, "Of course I hate my name Nikolay."
"Why so?"
"It's so trivial, so ordinary."
"You are thirteen?" asked Alyosha.
"No, fourteen - that is, I shall be fourteen very soon, in a
fortnight. I'll confess one weakness of mine, Karamazov, just to
you, since it's our first meeting, so that you ay understand my
character at once. I hate being asked my age, more than that... and
in fact... there's a libelous story going about me, that last week I
played robbers with the preparatory boys. It's a fact that I did
play with them, but it's a perfect libel to say I did it for my own
amusement. I have reasons for believing that you've heard the story;
but I wasn't playing for my own amusement, it was for the sake of
the children, because they couldn't think of anything to do by
themselves. But they've always got some silly tale. This is an awful
town for gossip, I can tell you."
"But what if you had been playing for your own amusement, what's
the harm?"
"Come, I say, for my own amusement! You don't play horses, do you?"
"But you must look at it like this," said Alyosha, smiling.
"Grown-up people go to the theatre and there the adventures of all
sorts of heroes are represented - sometimes there are robbers and
battles, too - and isn't that just the same thing, in a different
form, of course? And young people's games of soldiers or robbers in
their play-time are also art in it's first stage. You know, they
spring from the growing artistic instincts of the young. And
sometimes these games are much better than performances in the
theatre, the only difference is that people go there to look at
actors, while in these games the young people are the actors
themselves. But that's only natural."
"You think so? Is that your idea?" Kolya looked at him intently.
"Oh, you know, that's rather an interesting view. When I go home,
I'll think it over. I'll admit I thought I might learn something
from you. I've come to learn of you, Karamazov," Kolya concluded, in
a voice full of spontaneous feeling,
"And I of you," said Alyosha, smiling and pressing his hand.
Kolya was much pleased with Alyosha. What struck him most was that
he treated him exactly like an equal and that he talked to him just
as if he were "quite grown up."
Kolya confesses his despair at
feeling foolish in front of others:
"Oh, how I regret and blame myself for not having come
sooner!" Kolya exclaimed, with bitter feeling.
"Yes, it's a great pity. You saw for yourself how delighted the
poor child was to see you. And how he fretted for you to come."
"Don't tell me! You make it worse! But it serves me right. What
kept me from coming was my conceit, my egoistic vanity, and beastly
willfulness, which I never can get rid of, though I've been
struggling with it all my life. I see that now. I am a beast in lots
of ways, Karamazov!"
"No, you have a charming nature, though it's been distorted, and I
quite understand why, you have had such an influence on this
generous, morbidly sensitive boy," Alyosha answered warmly.
"And you say that to me!" cried Kolya; "and would you believe it, I
thought - I've thought several times since I've been here - that you
despised me! If only you knew how I prize your opinion!"
"But are you really so sensitive? At your age! Would you believe
it, just now, when you were telling your story, I thought, as I
watched you, that you must be very sensitive!"
"You thought so? What an eye you've got, I say! I bet that was when
I was talking about the goose. That was just when I was fancying you
had a great contempt for me for being in such a hurry to show off,
and for a moment I quite hated you for it, and began talking like a
fool. Then I fancied - just now, here - when I said that if there
were no God He would have to be invented, that I was in too great a
hurry to display my knowledge, especially as I got that phrase out
of a book. But I swear I wasn't showing off out of vanity, though I
really don't know why, because I was so pleased, yes, I believe it
was because I was so pleased... though it's perfectly disgraceful
for any one to be gushing directly they are pleased. I know that.
But I am convinced now that you don't despise me; it was all my
imagination. Oh, Karamazov, I am profoundly unhappy. I sometimes
fancy all sorts of thing, that every one is laughing at me, the
whole world, and then I feel ready to overturn the whole order of
things."
Mitya embarrassed about his toes after
having to give up his clothing to be examined by the arresting
officers:
"You must take off your shirt, too. That's very important as
material evidence."
Mitya flushed red and flew into a rage.
"What, am I to stay naked?" he shouted.
"Don't disturb yourself. We will arrange something. And meanwhile
take off your socks."
"You're not joking? Is that really necessary?" Mitya's eyes
flashed.
"We are in no mood for joking," answered Nikolay Parfenovitch
sternly.
"Well, if I must..." muttered Mitya, and sitting down on the bed,
he took off his socks. He felt unbearably awkward. All were clothed,
while he was naked, and strange to say, when he was undressed he
felt somehow guilty in their presence, and was almost ready to
believe himself that he was inferior to them, and that now they had
a perfect right to despise him.
"When all are undressed, one is somehow not ashamed, but when one's
the only one undressed and everybody is looking, it's degrading," he
kept repeating to himself, again and again. "It's like a dream, I've
sometimes dreamed of being in such degrading positions." It was a
misery to him to take off his socks. They were very dirty, and so
were his underclothes, and now everyone could see it. And what was
worse, he disliked his feet. All his life he had thought both his
big toes hideous. He particularly loathed the coarse, flat, crooked
nail on the right one, and now they would all see it. Feeling
intolerably ashamed made him, at once and intentionally, rougher. He
pulled off his shirt, himself.