The Brothers Karamazov Readalong: Part I Book One
Monday, June 3rd, 2013
Welcome to The Brothers Karamazov Summer Readalong! Should I call it The Summer of K? BK? will always be associated with the Newark, Ohio Burger King, and KB are my initials, so perhaps we are best left to the name. We’ll be reading one of the novel’s 13 book sections a week.
What’s in a name, though? One of the many people I talked to about the book asked, “is it about a circus,” perhaps because of the title. I find it intriguing that only the Oxford World’s Classics version is called The Karamazov Brothers, which scans more regularly, though is certainly less familiar and distinct.
Then, what’s in a name? According to Pevear/Volokhonsky, the translators of my edition, the zee/zed of Karamazov is like zoo, not Mozart.
And, why did I pick this translation? I’m reading it with a book group, so I find it best to go with the most readily available in stores, which is this one. The P/V version is even available in more than one edition/publisher. After some poking around, though, I think I might have preferred that Oxford edition. There are a couple times already in just 33 pages that the translation has “hiccuped” for me:
“he is a strange man, even an odd one.” (3) What’s the difference between strange and odd?
Then, among the translations, there’s disagreement on an adjective to describe the brothers’ father, Fyodor Pavlovich. Some choose muddleheaded (P/V, MacAndrew), McDuff, Avsey), others senseless (Garnett, and another, perhaps Oddo’s Norton?) I find scatterbrained perhaps more apt.
Hey, did you know there’s a 1958 film adaptation, and guess who’s the main character, Alexi?
SHATNER.
On to the book. Part I, Book One contains five chapters. We’re introduced to the depraved and scatterbrained father Fyodor Petrovich, his first and second wives, and most importantly, his three sons, of the title.
Dmitri, from the first marriage. A wild uneducated soldier who resents his lack of inheritance. Fights with FP.
Ivan, the elder son of the second marriage. Gloomy and a scholar, also resentful about living on handouts but gets along with FP.
Alexei, the youngest son, who is proclaimed the hero of the novel by Dostoevsky on page 3. Introverted, intelligent, religious, a peacemaker. Loved by his father, liked by Dmitri, but distant from Ivan.
The narrator tells us that FP dies a dark and tragic death, which he’ll discuss later. Several other times we’re told that we’ll be told things later. This book ends as the brothers, their father, and a relative of Dmitri’s mother plan a metting with a respected monastery elder, Alexei’s mentor Zosima. Alexei does not have a good feeling about the upcoming meeting.
Meet us back here in a week to discuss book two. What did everyone else think?