I finally finished listening to this masterpiece. I listened to the Librivox recording read by volunteers. Some readers weren't so good but most of them were excellent. It is long! It took me a long time to get into it and get used to the characters. They all struck me as bizarre, initially. Fyodor Karamazov has three sons (and maybe an illegitimate 4th one.). The oldest is Dimitri or Mitya, from his first wife, the second is Ivan from the second wife and the third son, Alexei, is also from the 2nd wife. He has neglected and basically abandoned all three and they are raised by distant relatives. Mitya becomes a soldier, but he is too much like his sensual loving father. He has no impulse control. He likes playing with the ladies. However, and maybe this is because of how dishonorable his father is, he actually has a certain, rather narrow principle of honor that he tries to cling to. Ivan is the smart one. All these sons are young. I think Mitya is 23 and Ivan 21 or so. Ivan has already made a big splash in the publishing world after writing a brilliant analysis of a subject he didn't even really know about. He is just that smart and eloquent. Alexei or Alyosha is the good one. He wants to become a monk. And when we meet him he is under the tutelage of a famous elder monk named Father Zossima. Alyosha radiates goodness. He sees good in everyone. When he sees wrong being done it troubles him but he never stops loving the person who is doing the wrong. He speaks the truth to them always.
There is a possible 4th son who was conceived when a drunken Fyodor may have raped the local town homeless crazy lady, Lizavetta. He is named Smerdyakov and he is the only one actually raised in the household of the father Fyodor, albeit by the married servant couple, Grigory and Marfa. Fyodor married money in his first wife, and lucked into his second marriage but he was a loathsome person who was supremely undeserving and cruel to both. Always playing the buffoon but probably the smartest and most manipulative person in the room at any given time. He is a selfish, crude, belligerent man who craves attention and is good at making money, probably in a shady way. He is very reluctant to part with his money to his sons. When the sons are all finished being raised, they come back to the town. Mitya wants the money owed him by his inheritance. He is a gambler and drinker who has used up his money and is now in debt. I forget why Ivan comes home. Alexei has come back to the monastery attached to the town.
The plot is complicated. There are three women, each a potential love interest for each son. Mitya is engaged to a general's daughter, Katarina Ivanova, but he has fallen out of love with her and in love with a local woman, Grushenka. Grushenka apparently is a fallen woman, who was seduced by her lover at the age of 17 but then abandoned. She has come under the protection of a local merchant, who probably isn't sleeping with her, we don't think. She is very good at money and has helped him with his business and made some money for herself as well. Then there is a young crippled girl named Lisa who is the daughter of a local noble lady. She has somehow known Alyosha since childhood. Apparently her legs are getting stronger and she is expected to be able to walk one day. Father Zossima has prayed over her and she is recovering her health slowly. She is really crazy and we never find out why she is so. She loves Alyosha but then she rejects him. This is a kind of a loose end of the story that just never gets wrapped up.
So this is how it goes: Mitya loves Grushenka, but his father is obsessed with her as well. So the son and father are rivals. Meanwhile Grushenka just toys with them because she's waiting for her former lover to come back to her even though it's been 5 years. Katarina realizes Mitya no longer cares for her but his brother Ivan though has fallen in love with her.
Smerdyakov is creepy and evil. He hides this under a veneer of obsequious resentment and false timidity. He is also an epileptic. He sees that Mitya is getting desperate to keep Grushenka from his father and to also get his inheritance of 300 rubles so he can pay back 300 rubles that Katerina lent him. Mitya is determined to pay this money back as a point of honor. There's a really complicated back story to all this.
In the meantime Father Zossima dies and Alyosha goes through a brief period of grave doubt when he sees all the evil spoken of his holy mentor. Then after Alyosha leaves the monastary, he befriends a young boy who is being bullied by his schoolmates and who in anger bites Alyosha's finger. This young boy is named Ilusha. The foil to Ilusha is Khowla, a precociously bright boy who is vain but comes to revere Alyosha.
Smerdyakov has some interesting conversations with Mitya and Ivan and Alyosha at various times and it really seems like he is setting everyone up. Mitya, crazed with jealousy goes on a frantic spree and Fyodor is murdered. All the evidence points to Mitya. But Mitya didn't do it. We have a long trial scene the end of which is heartbreaking.
The books ends with so many loose ends. Will Mitya go to Siberia or escape with Grushenka to America? Will Ivan, who is having his own complicated struggle with guilt, die from his brain fever or not? Alyosha isn't going to be a monk. . . .yet. Where will he go, and will he marry Lisa?
There is so much going on in this book. There are so many profound questions being raised. We've got the problem of suffering, reason vs. faith, atheism vs. belief, the influence of childhood on manhood the relationship between parents and children, and so much more.
The end of the book though, is hopeful because Alyosha, with his simple faith, can always see the good in anyone, he always is grateful, he always sees the bigger picture, he always does the generous thing. And at the end what he says is as true as all the ugly true things said before.
I am glad the good Lord gave me time enough in my life to finally get around to reading this masterpiece. It deserves the reputation it has. Back in my 20's I read the first part up until the chapter called The Grand Inquisitor. It's only taken me 3 decades more to finally finish it! I would really love to study more about the meaning behind this complex and thoughtful novel.
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