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Sensual Alyosha who is the youngest of the Karamazov brothers is the main character of the story, and he is noted for his strong faith in god and humanity, deep kindness and sense of sacrifice.
Ivan the atheist has a sharp mind and is the critical analyzer who seeks for meaning in everything. He is skeptical and dwells more on rationale in his dealing with people and issues. In the end, his intellectual mind misleads him and opens the doors to the nightmares in his life.
Dmitry is the sensitive brother who has a strong consideration for anything living, Smerdyakov their half-brother, is the cunning illegitimate son of old Fyodor Karamazov and works as Fyodor's servant.

The characters of the brothers and the events of their lives made for the complex and fascinating story of exceptional proportions, where faith, meekness, atheism, indifference and slavery to negative instincts and impulses are often in conflict. Faith and atheism or disbelief in God is taken to epic proportions in Ivan's encounter with the devil.

Dostoevsky stated that, "when there is no God, all is permitted.". That assertion is reinforced in books like UNION MOUJIK,THE IDIOT and CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. The absence of God or lack of faith in man makes it possible for man to thrive in his worst animal instincts. Even when man starts with good intentions, the absence of faith usually derails him to the point where the good intentions are overshadowed by the negative effects of his actions. My conclusion is that this is a rare masterpiece.


a millions stars actually   August 19, 2004
 0 out of 1 found this review helpful

THis book is amazing! i loved every page of it and the 756 pages were sooooooo beautifully used up that the time used reading such a long book is more than worth it. I plan on reading this book again in the future but for my first read of this book i was astonished at how so much could be put into a novel. I loved how dostoevksy made his character seem so human. I particularily enjoyed the part of the book based on the tird brother ALyosha and his elder zoisma the most because the insight on religion and suffering (like the conversation between alyosha and his brother ivan) i found to be very interesting.

I recommend this book to classical readers not those who enjoy a quick read cuz this really isnt that type of book, it has its fair share of slow parts so the average fiction reader may find it too much work to read and enjoy at the same time. The writting isnt the most difficult i have ever encountered and the translation seemed farily good (never read a different translation of this book) however it isnt easy writting either.