The Brothers Karamazov cover

The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1880)

The greatest novel ever written, according to Freud, Einstein, and Kafka — a murder mystery that is really a trial of God.

EraRussian Realism / Late 19th Century
Pages796
Difficulty★★★★★ Expert
AP Appearances14

Character Analysis

The novel's ostensible hero, though he has no dramatic adventures. His spiritual power is entirely relational — he is the point through which every other character's story passes. He doesn't argue; he loves. His crisis of faith after Zosima's death is the most honest moment in the novel. His final speech to the boys is the novel's closing argument: not a proof but a testament.