Before you buy this edition, use Amazon's Search/Look Inside feature to read the first few pages of all available translations so that you can buy the one you like the most. Buying a bad translation will ruin your experience. I bought Andrew MacAndrew's because the text just flows.

Now a review of the book itself. The main story is good and most of the characters are outstanding, but I'm not a Christian and the book's Christian theme put me off. Besides, Alyosha was such a boring hero, all he did was smile a lot and utter a line once in a while. For some reason, Alyosha never had any internal monologue and it was hard for me to know him. I wonder why the hero was boring while the villain, Fyodor, was so entertaining, even though he could also be annoying. But Dmitry and Ivan were the best characters by far. They may not represent the ideals of Christianity like Alyosha. Who cares? They were much more human and my heart went to them.

This is a tremendous story, but you already knew that because of the author. But this version is awful because the font is either 7 or 8 CPI. Considering that this is almost an 800-page book, your vision will be permanently worse if you read this entire book. I understand that it is a long story that they need to keep short, but it's really unhealthy to read a typeface so small.

The everyman library edition has very small font. It is a pain to read it.

"All religions are based upon this desire and I am a believer." He comes as close as any author to expressing truth in fiction.

How could a young student ever hope to study this novel, with its size, complexity and challenging themes? I read Crime and Punishment as a youth many years ago and have never forgotten it, putting off trying the large classics of Russian literature such as "Brothers". At last I have read BK and feel richly rewarded from the experience.

In a review of the Cliff Notes for BK, I appreciated the value of the supporting notes to a solo reader, and suggest the notes as a companion for anyone contemplating the novel without the support of a teacher. The novel almost demands to be taught, rather than read solo, or risk being overwhelmed, as Dostoevsky explores many themes in depth. It's not that the plot itself is particularly deep or hard to follow, but the collective detail on the characters and their interplay, the look at Russia when it was still a religious country (leading up to the revolution), the sophisticated exchanges on religion and morals, and so on all form the incredible structure that is this novel. If you don't want the Cliff or Spark notes, try some other advance prep or plan to do some Internet browsing once you begin.

The focus on religion and its role in how people act and in their prospects for redemption was more than I anticipated. The elder Zossima, Ivan, and others put forth lengthy, reasoned arguments. The author never makes one side be the fool or demand an impossible standard for humans. The author allows strong statements to be made against God and Christianity, or at least the church as constituted in his day. One can't help but notice Dostoevsky's speaking through Zossima, especially to Russians, when he says how the unbelievers in Russia will fail and that the people will prevent the atheists from taking control of his beloved Russia. How wrong he was!

Dostoevsky clearly understood the dark side of humanity as well as individuals' capacity for love and redemption through suffering and acceptance of inevitable failures. It is the more direct, human-touch Christianity of Alyosha that will triumph in Dostoevsky's world, rather than the purely intellectual and disbelieving Ivan, a point brought home again with Ivan's breakdown.

The author uses relatively extreme personalities to show human traits, with the result that they become rather unrealistic. That is acceptable because they are not single-dimensional. For example, Dmitri, perhaps the main character in the novel, has many flaws, amply demonstrated to a near-extreme, enough that I skimmed some parts when he was particularly annoying. Even so, Dostoevsky allows Dmitri some good points, as with his basic honor that helps anchor his road to potential redemption.

My translation was the Bantam Classics paperback by Andrew MacAndrew.

Brothers Karamazov is a novel which represents life in very detail. Dostoevsky has studied human mind and its nature very closely and in his novel he has revealed in very detail about human mind.
He has talked about love and how it transforms you, he has written about jealousy and what it leads to and how it burns.
He is the most alive and enthusiastic writer I have across, I don't see a trace of passiveness in his language and I feel his energy is so active, so lively and so passionate.
If one has to talk about life then Dostoevsky novel is the perfect material which reveals different dimensions of life. One can miss Gita; one can miss Ramayana but should not miss Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov.
It happens very rarely that the expression of life is revealed through words and this novel takes you on a journey called life.

the novel changes you by questioning your opinions with such a variety of principles & points of view

love this book, great writing. a lot of times Dostoevsky only gets due credit for Crime and Punishment, but the Brothers K is a magnificent peice of lit and a definate must read.