Penguin Random House Higher Education
Elementary Secondary Higher Ed

Higher Education


Catalogs

News

Desk/Exam
(0)
Wish List
(0)
Wish List
  • Higher Education

    • Business & Economics
        • Business & Economics
        • Accounting
        • Business
        • Economics
        • Finance
        • Management
        • Management Information Services
        • Marketing

        • Browse All Disciplines & Courses in Business & Economics
    • Humanities & Social Sciences
        • Humanities & Social Sciences
        • Anthropology
        • Art
        • Communication
        • Education
        • English
        • Film Studies
        • History
        • Interdisciplinary Studies
        • Music
        •  
        • Performing Arts
        • Philosophy
        • Political Science
        • Psychology
        • Religion
        • Social Work
        • Sociology
        • Student Success and Career Development
        • World Languages

        • Browse All Disciplines & Courses in Humanities & Social Sciences
    • Professional Studies
        • Professional Studies
        • Architecture
        • Criminal Justice
        • Culinary, Hospitality, Travel , and Tourism
        • Healthcare Professions
        • Legal and Paralegal Studies
        • Military Science

        • Browse All Disciplines & Courses in Professional Studies
    • Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
        • Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
        • Biology
        • Chemistry
        • Computer Science
        • Computers & Information Systems
        • Engineering
        • Environmental Science
        •  
        • Geography
        • Geology
        • Health and Kinesiology
        • Mathematics
        • Nutrition
        • Physics and Astronomy

        • Browse All Disciplines & Courses in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
    • Catalogs
    • News
    • Desk/Exam
    • Other Penguin Random House Education Sites
    • Elementary Education
    • Secondary Education
Download high-resolution image Look inside

The Brothers Karamazov

Author Fyodor Dostoevsky
Look inside
Mass Market Paperback
$8.99 US
Bantam Dell | Bantam Classics
On sale Apr 01, 1984 | 1072 Pages | 978-0-553-21216-7
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies
See Additional Formats
  • English > Comparative Literature > Major Themes: Religion
  • English > Comparative Literature > Psychology and Literature
  • English > Comparative Literature: Russia and Eastern Europe > Russian
  • English > Comparative Literature: Russia and Eastern Europe > Specialized Courses
  • About
  • Excerpt
  • Author
Dostoevsky's last and greatest novel, The Karamazov Brothers (1880), is both a brilliantly told crime story and a passionate philosophical debate. The dissolute landowner Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov is murdered; his sons - the atheist intellectual Ivan, the hot-blooded Dmitry, and the saintly novice Alyosha - are all at some level involved. Bound up with this intense family drama is Dostoevsky's exploration of many deeply felt ideas about the existence of God, the question of human freedom, the collective nature of guilt, the disastrous consequences of rationalism. The novel is also richly comic: the Russian Orthodox Church, the legal system, and even the author's most cherished causes and beliefs are presented with a note of irreverence, so that orthodoxy and radicalism, sanity and madness, love and hatred, right and wrong are no longer mutually exclusive. Rebecca West considered it 'the allegory for the world's maturity', but with children to the fore. This new translation does full justice to Dostoevsky's genius, particularly in the use of the spoken word, which ranges over every mode of human expression.
CHAPTER 1


FYODOR PAVLOVICH KARAMAZOV


ALexei Fyodorovich Karamazov was the third son of Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, a landowner in our district who became a celebrity (and is remembered to this day) because of the tragic and mysterious end he met exactly thirteen years ago, which will be described in its proper place. For the moment, I will only say of this "landowner" (as they referred to him here, although he spent hardly any time on his land) that he belonged to a peculiar though widespread human type, the sort of man who is not only wretched and depraved but also muddle-headed--muddle-headed in a way that allows him to pull off all sorts of shady little financial deals and not much else.

Fyodor Karamazov, for instance, started with next to nothing; he was just about the lowliest landowner among us, a man who would dash off to dine at other people's tables whenever he was given a chance and who sponged off people as much as he could. Yet, at his death, they found that he had a hundred thousand rubles in hard cash. And with all that, throughout his life he remained one of the most muddle-headed eccentrics in our entire district. Let me repeat: it was not stupidity, for most such eccentrics are really quite intelligent and cunning, and their lack of common sense is of a special kind, a national variety.

He had been married twice and had three sons--the eldest, Dmitry, by his first wife, and the other two, Ivan and Alexei, by the second.

Fyodor Karamazov's first wife came from a fairly wealthy family of landed gentry--the Miusovs--also from our district. Why should a girl with a dowry, a beautiful girl moreover, one of those bright, clever young things who in this generation are no longer rare and who even cropped up occasionally in the last--why should she marry such a worthless "freak," as they called him? I will not really attempt to explain. But, then, I once knew a young lady of the old, "romantic" generation who, after several years of secret love for a gentleman whom, please note, she could have peacefully married at any moment she chose, invented insurmountable obstacles for herself and, one stormy night, jumped from a steep, rather cliff-like bank into a fairly deep, rapid river and drowned, all because she fancied herself an Ophelia out of Shakespeare. Indeed, if the bank, on which she had had her eye for a long time, had been less picturesque or had there simply been a flat bank, it is conceivable that the suicide would never have taken place at all. This is a true story, and it must be assumed that in the past two or three generations quite a few similar incidents have occurred. In the same way, what Adelaida Miusov did was undoubtedly an echo of outside influences and also the act of exasperation of a captive mind. Perhaps she was trying to display feminine independence, to rebel against social conventions, against the despotism of her family and relatives, while her ready imagination convinced her, if only for a moment, that Fyodor Karamazov, despite his reputation as a sponger, was nevertheless one of the boldest and most caustic men of that "period of transition toward better things," whereas in reality he was nothing but a nasty buffoon. The fact that the marriage plans included elopement added piquancy to it, making it more exciting for Adelaida. Fyodor, at that time, would, of course, have done anything to improve his lowly position, and the opportunity to latch on to a good family and to pocket a dowry was extremely tempting to him. As for love, there does not seem to have been any, either on the bride's part or, despite her beauty, on Karamazov's. This was perhaps a unique case in Fyodor Karamazov's life, for he was as sensual as a man can be, one who throughout his life was always prepared, at the slightest encouragement, to chase any skirt. But his wife just happened to be the one woman who did not appeal to him sensually in the least.

Right after the elopement, Adelaida realized that she felt nothing but scorn for her husband. It quickly became obvious what married life was to be. Despite the fact that her family accepted the situation quite soon and gave the runaway bride her dowry, relations between husband and wife became an everlasting succession of quarrels. It was rumored that, in these quarrels, the young wife displayed incomparably more dignity and generosity than her husband, who, it was found out later, soon wheedled out of her every kopek of the twenty-five thousand rubles she had received, so that, as far as she was concerned, those thousands were sunk in deep waters never to be salvaged again. As to the little country estate and the quite decent town house that were also part of her dowry, he kept trying desperately to have them transferred to his name by some suitable deed; he probably would have succeeded because of the loathing and disgust his constant pleading and begging inspired in his wife, because she would do anything to have peace, sick and tired as she was of him; but luckily Adelaida's family intervened in time to put a stop to his greed.

People knew that husband and wife often came to actual blows and rumor had it that it was she who beat him, rather than he her. Indeed, Adelaida was a hot-tempered, bold, dark, and impatient lady endowed with remarkable physical strength.

Finally she eloped with a half-starved tutor, a former divinity student, leaving her husband with their three-year-old boy, Mitya.

Fyodor Karamazov immediately installed a regular harem in the house and indulged in the most scandalous drunken debauchery. But between one orgy and the next, he would drive all over the province complaining tearfully to all and sundry of Adelaida's desertion, and revealing on these occasions certain unsavory intimate details of their conjugal life that any other husband would have been ashamed to mention. He even seemed to enjoy--indeed, to feel flattered by--his ridiculous role as a cuckolded husband, for he insisted on describing his own disgrace in minute detail, even embellishing on it. "Why, Fyodor Pavlovich," people remarked, "you act as if an honor had been bestowed upon you. You seem pleased despite your sorrow." Many even added that he was delighted to have the role of clown thrust upon him, that he only pretended to be unaware of his ridiculous position in order to make it even funnier. But who can really tell? Possibly he was quite ingenuous about it all.

He finally succeeded in getting on the track of his runaway wife. It led to Petersburg where the poor thing had moved with her divinity student and where she had abandoned herself to a life of complete emancipation. Fyodor Karamazov immediately busied himself with preparations for the journey to Petersburg, and perhaps he would have gone, although he certainly had no idea what he would do there. But once he had decided to go, he felt that he had a special reason for plunging into a bout of unrestrained drunkenness--to fortify himself for the journey. And just at that time his in-laws received word that Adelaida had died in Petersburg. She died suddenly, in a garret, of typhus according to some, of starvation according to others. Karamazov was drunk when he learned of his wife's death, and some say he exclaimed joyfully, raising his hands to heaven: "Lord, now let Your servant depart in peace." But according to others, he wept, sobbing like a little boy so that people felt sorry for him despite the disgust he aroused in them. It is quite possible that they all were right, that he rejoiced in his regained freedom and wept for the woman from whom he had been freed, both at once. In most cases, people, even the most vicious, are much more naive and simple-minded than we assume them to be. And this is true of ourselves too.



CHAPTER 2



HE GETS RID OF HIS ELDEST SON



It is, of course, easy to imagine what sort of a father such a man would be, how he would bring up his children. And he lived up to expectation: he completely and thoroughly neglected his child by Adelaida. He did not do so out of any deliberate malice or resentment toward the child's mother, but simply because he forgot all about the little boy. And while he was pestering people with his tears and self-pitying stories, while he was turning his home into a house of debauchery, a faithful servant of the household, Gregory, took the three-year-old Mitya into his care. If it hadn't been for Gregory, there would have been no one to change the boy's shirt. Moreover, it so happened that the child's relations on his mother's side had also, at first, forgotten his existence. Mitya's grandfather, that is, Adelaida's father, Mr. Miusov, was no longer alive; his widow, Mitya's grandmother, had moved to Moscow and was in very poor health; and, in the meantime, Adelaida's sisters had married and moved away. So Mitya spent almost a year in Gregory's little house in the servants' quarters. And, even if his father had occasionally remembered him (he could not, after all, have been completely unaware of the child's existence), Karamazov would have sent his son back to the servants' quarters anyway, because a child would have been in the way during the orgies.

But one day a first cousin of Adelaida's returned from Paris. Peter Miusov, who was later to settle abroad permanently, was at that time still a young man, but he was already an exception among the Miusovs: he was an enlightened, big-city gentleman, glittering with foreign polish, a European through and through who, later in life, was to become a typical liberal of the 1840's and 1850's. In the course of his life, he came in contact with some of the most liberal minds of his era, both in Russia and abroad. He met Proudhon personally, as well as Bakunin, and, toward the end of his wanderings, liked best to tell of his experiences during the three days of the February Revolution of 1848 which he had witnessed in Paris, implying that he himself had taken part in it, just short, perhaps, of manning the barricades. This was one of the most gratifying recollections of his youth. He was a man of independent means, with an income from an estate of a thousand-odd souls, as property was evaluated in the old days. That splendid estate was located just outside our town and bordered on the lands of our famous monastery. No sooner had young Peter Miusov taken possession of his estate than he started an endless lawsuit against the monastery. It was something about fishing privileges or wood-cutting rights, I'm not sure which, but he felt that in suing "clericals" he was doing his duty as a citizen and an enlightened man.

When Miusov heard what had happened to Adelaida, whom he, of course, remembered, having even, at one time, taken a special interest in her, and when he learned of Mitya's plight, he decided to intervene, although that involved approaching Karamazov, whom Miusov loathed and despised with all the ardor of youth. This was the first time that he met Fyodor Karamazov; he told him point blank that he wished to take the boy and be responsible for his education. Later, he liked to tell at length what had happened at that meeting, because he felt it revealed a great deal about Karamazov's character. When Miusov first broached the subject of Mitya, the fellow stared at him blankly, as though he could not understand what child Miusov was talking about, and he seemed positively taken aback when reminded that he had a young son. And although Miusov's story may have been exaggerated, there was certainly an element of truth in it. It is a fact that all his life Karamazov liked to act the fool and assume all sorts of surprising roles; he would do so even when he had nothing to gain, indeed, even when it could be positively to his disadvantage, as in this instance. This is a quirk found in many people, even very clever ones, let alone the likes of Fyodor Karamazov.

Miusov at first went about the matter with some zest, and was even appointed Mitya's guardian (jointly with Karamazov), since the boy had, after all, the small estate and the town house coming to him as his inheritance from his mother. And he moved the boy to his house. But, not being tied down by a family of his own, just as soon as he had wound up his business in our town, which consisted of collecting the revenue from his estate, he went dashing off to Paris for a long stay. He left the boy in the care of a relative of his, a lady who lived in Moscow. Miusov settled in Paris for good and lost sight of Mitya, his interest in the boy petering out completely after the February Revolution, which made such an ineradicable impression on him. In the meantime, the Moscow lady died and Mitya passed into the care of one of her married daughters. I believe he had to change homes for a fourth time soon afterward. I won't expand on this topic here since I will have a great deal to say later about this first-born son of Fyodor Karamazov's, but I must supply a few facts right away, without which I could not even begin my novel.

First of all, Mitya--that is, Dmitry Fyodorovich Karamazov--was the only one of Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov's sons who grew up under the impression that, however hard up he might be, he would, when he came of age, come into his inheritance from his mother and that he would then be financially independent. He was unruly as a boy and as a young man. He dropped out of the classical secondary school, but later was admitted to military school. From there he was sent on active duty with an army unit in the Caucasus, where he was given an officer's commission in the field. He was soon demoted to the ranks for fighting a duel, only to be restored to his rank again for gallantry. After this he led a wild, gay life that cost a good deal of money. Since, until he came of age, he never received a single kopek from his father, he was deep in debt by the time that day arrived. He only met and got to know the old man when he came to our town to demand an accounting of the estate left him by his mother. It would appear that, even then, Dmitry took a dislike to his father. He stayed at the paternal house only a short time, leaving as soon as he had managed to get a very small sum from the old man, together with some vague agreement about sending him the revenue from his estate. It must be noted here that on this occasion Dmitry failed to find out from his father what the total worth of his estate was or what income it yielded. Karamazov discovered right away (and this must be noted too) that his son had an erroneous and exaggerated notion of his inheritance, and this discovery pleased him for it fitted in with his own schemes. He realized that the young man was irresponsible, violent, passionate, unruly, impatient, and that he couldn't wait to satisfy all his whims and impulses. And Karamazov now knew how to handle Dmitry: the fellow could always be placated, at least temporarily, with small handouts. Karamazov proceeded immediately to exploit his son's weakness, putting him off with small sums. This went on for four years until, finally, Dmitry lost patience. He made a second appearance in town, this time to force on his father a final settlement of their accounts. He was quite stunned to hear from Karamazov that he had already received, in the many installments, a sum amounting to the value of his estate, that, if anything, it was he who was now in debt to his father, and that, moreover, in view of such and such an agreement which he himself had insisted upon at one point, he had renounced all further claims, etc., etc. The young man was dumbfounded, accused his father of cheating him, and acted as if he would go out of his mind.
Copyright © 1984 by Fyodor Dostoevsky. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Fyodor Mikailovich Dostoevsky’s life was as dark and dramatic as the great novels he wrote. He was born in Moscow in 1821. A short first novel, Poor Folk (1846), brought him instant success, but his writing career was cut short by his arrest for alleged subversion against Tsar Nicholas I in 1849. His prison experiences coupled with his conversion to a profoundly religious philosophy formed the basis for his great novels. But it was his fortuitous marriage to Anna Snitkina, following a period of utter destitution brought about by his compulsive gambling, that gave Dostoevsky the emotional stability to complete Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1868–1869), The Possessed (1871–1872), and The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880). When Dostoevsky died in 1881, he left a legacy of masterworks that influenced the great thinkers and writers of the Western world and immortalized him as a giant among writers of world literature. View titles by Fyodor Dostoevsky

About

Dostoevsky's last and greatest novel, The Karamazov Brothers (1880), is both a brilliantly told crime story and a passionate philosophical debate. The dissolute landowner Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov is murdered; his sons - the atheist intellectual Ivan, the hot-blooded Dmitry, and the saintly novice Alyosha - are all at some level involved. Bound up with this intense family drama is Dostoevsky's exploration of many deeply felt ideas about the existence of God, the question of human freedom, the collective nature of guilt, the disastrous consequences of rationalism. The novel is also richly comic: the Russian Orthodox Church, the legal system, and even the author's most cherished causes and beliefs are presented with a note of irreverence, so that orthodoxy and radicalism, sanity and madness, love and hatred, right and wrong are no longer mutually exclusive. Rebecca West considered it 'the allegory for the world's maturity', but with children to the fore. This new translation does full justice to Dostoevsky's genius, particularly in the use of the spoken word, which ranges over every mode of human expression.

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1


FYODOR PAVLOVICH KARAMAZOV


ALexei Fyodorovich Karamazov was the third son of Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, a landowner in our district who became a celebrity (and is remembered to this day) because of the tragic and mysterious end he met exactly thirteen years ago, which will be described in its proper place. For the moment, I will only say of this "landowner" (as they referred to him here, although he spent hardly any time on his land) that he belonged to a peculiar though widespread human type, the sort of man who is not only wretched and depraved but also muddle-headed--muddle-headed in a way that allows him to pull off all sorts of shady little financial deals and not much else.

Fyodor Karamazov, for instance, started with next to nothing; he was just about the lowliest landowner among us, a man who would dash off to dine at other people's tables whenever he was given a chance and who sponged off people as much as he could. Yet, at his death, they found that he had a hundred thousand rubles in hard cash. And with all that, throughout his life he remained one of the most muddle-headed eccentrics in our entire district. Let me repeat: it was not stupidity, for most such eccentrics are really quite intelligent and cunning, and their lack of common sense is of a special kind, a national variety.

He had been married twice and had three sons--the eldest, Dmitry, by his first wife, and the other two, Ivan and Alexei, by the second.

Fyodor Karamazov's first wife came from a fairly wealthy family of landed gentry--the Miusovs--also from our district. Why should a girl with a dowry, a beautiful girl moreover, one of those bright, clever young things who in this generation are no longer rare and who even cropped up occasionally in the last--why should she marry such a worthless "freak," as they called him? I will not really attempt to explain. But, then, I once knew a young lady of the old, "romantic" generation who, after several years of secret love for a gentleman whom, please note, she could have peacefully married at any moment she chose, invented insurmountable obstacles for herself and, one stormy night, jumped from a steep, rather cliff-like bank into a fairly deep, rapid river and drowned, all because she fancied herself an Ophelia out of Shakespeare. Indeed, if the bank, on which she had had her eye for a long time, had been less picturesque or had there simply been a flat bank, it is conceivable that the suicide would never have taken place at all. This is a true story, and it must be assumed that in the past two or three generations quite a few similar incidents have occurred. In the same way, what Adelaida Miusov did was undoubtedly an echo of outside influences and also the act of exasperation of a captive mind. Perhaps she was trying to display feminine independence, to rebel against social conventions, against the despotism of her family and relatives, while her ready imagination convinced her, if only for a moment, that Fyodor Karamazov, despite his reputation as a sponger, was nevertheless one of the boldest and most caustic men of that "period of transition toward better things," whereas in reality he was nothing but a nasty buffoon. The fact that the marriage plans included elopement added piquancy to it, making it more exciting for Adelaida. Fyodor, at that time, would, of course, have done anything to improve his lowly position, and the opportunity to latch on to a good family and to pocket a dowry was extremely tempting to him. As for love, there does not seem to have been any, either on the bride's part or, despite her beauty, on Karamazov's. This was perhaps a unique case in Fyodor Karamazov's life, for he was as sensual as a man can be, one who throughout his life was always prepared, at the slightest encouragement, to chase any skirt. But his wife just happened to be the one woman who did not appeal to him sensually in the least.

Right after the elopement, Adelaida realized that she felt nothing but scorn for her husband. It quickly became obvious what married life was to be. Despite the fact that her family accepted the situation quite soon and gave the runaway bride her dowry, relations between husband and wife became an everlasting succession of quarrels. It was rumored that, in these quarrels, the young wife displayed incomparably more dignity and generosity than her husband, who, it was found out later, soon wheedled out of her every kopek of the twenty-five thousand rubles she had received, so that, as far as she was concerned, those thousands were sunk in deep waters never to be salvaged again. As to the little country estate and the quite decent town house that were also part of her dowry, he kept trying desperately to have them transferred to his name by some suitable deed; he probably would have succeeded because of the loathing and disgust his constant pleading and begging inspired in his wife, because she would do anything to have peace, sick and tired as she was of him; but luckily Adelaida's family intervened in time to put a stop to his greed.

People knew that husband and wife often came to actual blows and rumor had it that it was she who beat him, rather than he her. Indeed, Adelaida was a hot-tempered, bold, dark, and impatient lady endowed with remarkable physical strength.

Finally she eloped with a half-starved tutor, a former divinity student, leaving her husband with their three-year-old boy, Mitya.

Fyodor Karamazov immediately installed a regular harem in the house and indulged in the most scandalous drunken debauchery. But between one orgy and the next, he would drive all over the province complaining tearfully to all and sundry of Adelaida's desertion, and revealing on these occasions certain unsavory intimate details of their conjugal life that any other husband would have been ashamed to mention. He even seemed to enjoy--indeed, to feel flattered by--his ridiculous role as a cuckolded husband, for he insisted on describing his own disgrace in minute detail, even embellishing on it. "Why, Fyodor Pavlovich," people remarked, "you act as if an honor had been bestowed upon you. You seem pleased despite your sorrow." Many even added that he was delighted to have the role of clown thrust upon him, that he only pretended to be unaware of his ridiculous position in order to make it even funnier. But who can really tell? Possibly he was quite ingenuous about it all.

He finally succeeded in getting on the track of his runaway wife. It led to Petersburg where the poor thing had moved with her divinity student and where she had abandoned herself to a life of complete emancipation. Fyodor Karamazov immediately busied himself with preparations for the journey to Petersburg, and perhaps he would have gone, although he certainly had no idea what he would do there. But once he had decided to go, he felt that he had a special reason for plunging into a bout of unrestrained drunkenness--to fortify himself for the journey. And just at that time his in-laws received word that Adelaida had died in Petersburg. She died suddenly, in a garret, of typhus according to some, of starvation according to others. Karamazov was drunk when he learned of his wife's death, and some say he exclaimed joyfully, raising his hands to heaven: "Lord, now let Your servant depart in peace." But according to others, he wept, sobbing like a little boy so that people felt sorry for him despite the disgust he aroused in them. It is quite possible that they all were right, that he rejoiced in his regained freedom and wept for the woman from whom he had been freed, both at once. In most cases, people, even the most vicious, are much more naive and simple-minded than we assume them to be. And this is true of ourselves too.



CHAPTER 2



HE GETS RID OF HIS ELDEST SON



It is, of course, easy to imagine what sort of a father such a man would be, how he would bring up his children. And he lived up to expectation: he completely and thoroughly neglected his child by Adelaida. He did not do so out of any deliberate malice or resentment toward the child's mother, but simply because he forgot all about the little boy. And while he was pestering people with his tears and self-pitying stories, while he was turning his home into a house of debauchery, a faithful servant of the household, Gregory, took the three-year-old Mitya into his care. If it hadn't been for Gregory, there would have been no one to change the boy's shirt. Moreover, it so happened that the child's relations on his mother's side had also, at first, forgotten his existence. Mitya's grandfather, that is, Adelaida's father, Mr. Miusov, was no longer alive; his widow, Mitya's grandmother, had moved to Moscow and was in very poor health; and, in the meantime, Adelaida's sisters had married and moved away. So Mitya spent almost a year in Gregory's little house in the servants' quarters. And, even if his father had occasionally remembered him (he could not, after all, have been completely unaware of the child's existence), Karamazov would have sent his son back to the servants' quarters anyway, because a child would have been in the way during the orgies.

But one day a first cousin of Adelaida's returned from Paris. Peter Miusov, who was later to settle abroad permanently, was at that time still a young man, but he was already an exception among the Miusovs: he was an enlightened, big-city gentleman, glittering with foreign polish, a European through and through who, later in life, was to become a typical liberal of the 1840's and 1850's. In the course of his life, he came in contact with some of the most liberal minds of his era, both in Russia and abroad. He met Proudhon personally, as well as Bakunin, and, toward the end of his wanderings, liked best to tell of his experiences during the three days of the February Revolution of 1848 which he had witnessed in Paris, implying that he himself had taken part in it, just short, perhaps, of manning the barricades. This was one of the most gratifying recollections of his youth. He was a man of independent means, with an income from an estate of a thousand-odd souls, as property was evaluated in the old days. That splendid estate was located just outside our town and bordered on the lands of our famous monastery. No sooner had young Peter Miusov taken possession of his estate than he started an endless lawsuit against the monastery. It was something about fishing privileges or wood-cutting rights, I'm not sure which, but he felt that in suing "clericals" he was doing his duty as a citizen and an enlightened man.

When Miusov heard what had happened to Adelaida, whom he, of course, remembered, having even, at one time, taken a special interest in her, and when he learned of Mitya's plight, he decided to intervene, although that involved approaching Karamazov, whom Miusov loathed and despised with all the ardor of youth. This was the first time that he met Fyodor Karamazov; he told him point blank that he wished to take the boy and be responsible for his education. Later, he liked to tell at length what had happened at that meeting, because he felt it revealed a great deal about Karamazov's character. When Miusov first broached the subject of Mitya, the fellow stared at him blankly, as though he could not understand what child Miusov was talking about, and he seemed positively taken aback when reminded that he had a young son. And although Miusov's story may have been exaggerated, there was certainly an element of truth in it. It is a fact that all his life Karamazov liked to act the fool and assume all sorts of surprising roles; he would do so even when he had nothing to gain, indeed, even when it could be positively to his disadvantage, as in this instance. This is a quirk found in many people, even very clever ones, let alone the likes of Fyodor Karamazov.

Miusov at first went about the matter with some zest, and was even appointed Mitya's guardian (jointly with Karamazov), since the boy had, after all, the small estate and the town house coming to him as his inheritance from his mother. And he moved the boy to his house. But, not being tied down by a family of his own, just as soon as he had wound up his business in our town, which consisted of collecting the revenue from his estate, he went dashing off to Paris for a long stay. He left the boy in the care of a relative of his, a lady who lived in Moscow. Miusov settled in Paris for good and lost sight of Mitya, his interest in the boy petering out completely after the February Revolution, which made such an ineradicable impression on him. In the meantime, the Moscow lady died and Mitya passed into the care of one of her married daughters. I believe he had to change homes for a fourth time soon afterward. I won't expand on this topic here since I will have a great deal to say later about this first-born son of Fyodor Karamazov's, but I must supply a few facts right away, without which I could not even begin my novel.

First of all, Mitya--that is, Dmitry Fyodorovich Karamazov--was the only one of Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov's sons who grew up under the impression that, however hard up he might be, he would, when he came of age, come into his inheritance from his mother and that he would then be financially independent. He was unruly as a boy and as a young man. He dropped out of the classical secondary school, but later was admitted to military school. From there he was sent on active duty with an army unit in the Caucasus, where he was given an officer's commission in the field. He was soon demoted to the ranks for fighting a duel, only to be restored to his rank again for gallantry. After this he led a wild, gay life that cost a good deal of money. Since, until he came of age, he never received a single kopek from his father, he was deep in debt by the time that day arrived. He only met and got to know the old man when he came to our town to demand an accounting of the estate left him by his mother. It would appear that, even then, Dmitry took a dislike to his father. He stayed at the paternal house only a short time, leaving as soon as he had managed to get a very small sum from the old man, together with some vague agreement about sending him the revenue from his estate. It must be noted here that on this occasion Dmitry failed to find out from his father what the total worth of his estate was or what income it yielded. Karamazov discovered right away (and this must be noted too) that his son had an erroneous and exaggerated notion of his inheritance, and this discovery pleased him for it fitted in with his own schemes. He realized that the young man was irresponsible, violent, passionate, unruly, impatient, and that he couldn't wait to satisfy all his whims and impulses. And Karamazov now knew how to handle Dmitry: the fellow could always be placated, at least temporarily, with small handouts. Karamazov proceeded immediately to exploit his son's weakness, putting him off with small sums. This went on for four years until, finally, Dmitry lost patience. He made a second appearance in town, this time to force on his father a final settlement of their accounts. He was quite stunned to hear from Karamazov that he had already received, in the many installments, a sum amounting to the value of his estate, that, if anything, it was he who was now in debt to his father, and that, moreover, in view of such and such an agreement which he himself had insisted upon at one point, he had renounced all further claims, etc., etc. The young man was dumbfounded, accused his father of cheating him, and acted as if he would go out of his mind.
Copyright © 1984 by Fyodor Dostoevsky. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Author

Fyodor Mikailovich Dostoevsky’s life was as dark and dramatic as the great novels he wrote. He was born in Moscow in 1821. A short first novel, Poor Folk (1846), brought him instant success, but his writing career was cut short by his arrest for alleged subversion against Tsar Nicholas I in 1849. His prison experiences coupled with his conversion to a profoundly religious philosophy formed the basis for his great novels. But it was his fortuitous marriage to Anna Snitkina, following a period of utter destitution brought about by his compulsive gambling, that gave Dostoevsky the emotional stability to complete Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1868–1869), The Possessed (1871–1872), and The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880). When Dostoevsky died in 1881, he left a legacy of masterworks that influenced the great thinkers and writers of the Western world and immortalized him as a giant among writers of world literature. View titles by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Additional formats

  • The Brothers Karamazov
    The Brothers Karamazov
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-307-81701-3
    $11.99 US
    Ebook
    Modern Library
    Mar 28, 2012
  • The Brothers Karamazov
    The Brothers Karamazov
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-307-75525-4
    $7.99 US
    Ebook
    Bantam Classics
    Oct 19, 2011
  • The Brothers Karamazov
    The Brothers Karamazov
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-307-81701-3
    $11.99 US
    Ebook
    Modern Library
    Mar 28, 2012
  • The Brothers Karamazov
    The Brothers Karamazov
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-307-75525-4
    $7.99 US
    Ebook
    Bantam Classics
    Oct 19, 2011

Other books in this series

  • Clouds of Witness
    Clouds of Witness
    Dorothy L. Sayers
    978-0-593-46637-7
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 03, 2023
  • Boris Godunov, Little Tragedies, and Others
    Boris Godunov, Little Tragedies, and Others
    The Complete Plays
    Alexander Pushkin
    978-0-593-46756-5
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 03, 2023
  • Men Without Women
    Men Without Women
    Ernest Hemingway
    978-0-593-46884-5
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 03, 2023
  • The Sun Also Rises
    The Sun Also Rises
    Ernest Hemingway
    978-0-593-46634-6
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 25, 2022
  • Enough Rope
    Enough Rope
    A Book of Light Verse
    Dorothy Parker
    978-0-593-46635-3
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 25, 2022
  • Sister Carrie
    Sister Carrie
    Theodore Dreiser
    978-0-593-31488-3
    $9.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Dec 28, 2021
  • The Art of War
    The Art of War
    Sun Tzu
    978-0-593-31466-1
    $9.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Dec 21, 2021
  • Wuthering Heights
    Wuthering Heights
    Emily Bronte
    978-0-593-24403-6
    $8.00 US
    Paperback
    Modern Library
    Dec 07, 2021
  • A Passage to India
    A Passage to India
    E. M. Forster
    978-0-593-24156-1
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Modern Library
    Aug 10, 2021
  • An American Tragedy
    An American Tragedy
    Theodore Dreiser
    978-0-593-31332-9
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    May 25, 2021
  • The Waste Land and Other Poems
    The Waste Land and Other Poems
    T. S. Eliot
    978-0-593-31334-3
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    May 11, 2021
  • Fifty-Two Stories
    Fifty-Two Stories
    Anton Chekhov
    978-0-525-56238-2
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 19, 2021
  • Mrs. Dalloway
    Mrs. Dalloway
    Virginia Woolf
    978-0-593-31180-6
    $9.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 05, 2021
  • In Our Time
    In Our Time
    Ernest Hemingway
    978-0-593-31182-0
    $9.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 05, 2021
  • The Great Gatsby
    The Great Gatsby
    F. Scott Fitzgerald
    978-0-593-31184-4
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 05, 2021
  • Manhattan Transfer
    Manhattan Transfer
    John Dos Passos
    978-0-593-31205-6
    $9.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 05, 2021
  • The Prince
    The Prince
    Niccolo Machiavelli
    978-0-593-31086-1
    $8.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 13, 2020
  • The Wealth of Nations
    The Wealth of Nations
    Adam Smith
    978-0-593-31087-8
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 13, 2020
  • The Count of Monte Cristo
    The Count of Monte Cristo
    Alexandre Dumas
    978-0-593-08150-1
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 16, 2020
  • Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
    Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
    Jules Verne
    978-0-593-08151-8
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 16, 2020
  • Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I
    Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I
    Arthur Conan Doyle
    978-1-9848-9953-8
    $14.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Apr 14, 2020
  • Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume II
    Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume II
    Arthur Conan Doyle
    978-1-9848-9954-5
    $14.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Apr 14, 2020
  • A Passage to India
    A Passage to India
    E. M. Forster
    978-1-9848-9946-0
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 07, 2020
  • Little Women
    Little Women
    Louisa May Alcott
    978-1-9848-9885-2
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Nov 12, 2019
  • Leaves of Grass
    Leaves of Grass
    Walt Whitman
    978-1-9848-9755-8
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    May 28, 2019
  • Whose Body?
    Whose Body?
    The First Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery
    Dorothy L. Sayers
    978-0-525-56511-6
    $9.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Apr 30, 2019
  • New Hampshire
    New Hampshire
    Robert Frost
    978-0-525-56534-5
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 22, 2019
  • My Antonia
    My Antonia
    Introduction by Jane Smiley
    Willa Cather
    978-0-525-56286-3
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Mar 06, 2018
  • Novels, Tales, Journeys
    Novels, Tales, Journeys
    The Complete Prose of Alexander Pushkin
    Alexander Pushkin
    978-0-307-94988-2
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 17, 2017
  • All Passion Spent
    All Passion Spent
    Vita Sackville-West
    978-0-525-43397-2
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jul 11, 2017
  • The Edwardians
    The Edwardians
    Vita Sackville-West
    978-0-525-43399-6
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jul 11, 2017
  • The Rights of Man
    The Rights of Man
    H. G. Wells
    978-0-525-43234-0
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Mar 21, 2017
  • The Time Machine
    The Time Machine
    H. G. Wells
    978-0-525-43235-7
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Mar 21, 2017
  • Poems
    Poems
    William Blake
    978-1-101-97314-1
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Dec 13, 2016
  • The Mayor of Casterbridge
    The Mayor of Casterbridge
    Thomas Hardy
    978-0-345-80401-3
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Nov 08, 2016
  • Notes from a Dead House
    Notes from a Dead House
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-307-94987-5
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Mar 22, 2016
  • In the Land of Pain
    In the Land of Pain
    Alphonse Daudet
    978-1-101-97086-7
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Mar 22, 2016
  • Tess of the D'Urbervilles
    Tess of the D'Urbervilles
    Thomas Hardy
    978-0-345-80398-6
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Mar 03, 2015
  • The Prince and the Pauper
    The Prince and the Pauper
    Mark Twain
    978-1-101-87310-6
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Feb 03, 2015
  • Pudd'nhead Wilson
    Pudd'nhead Wilson
    Mark Twain
    978-1-101-87311-3
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Feb 03, 2015
  • Walden & Civil Disobedience
    Walden & Civil Disobedience
    Henry David Thoreau
    978-0-8041-7156-4
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Aug 26, 2014
  • The Scarlet Letter
    The Scarlet Letter
    A Romance
    Nathaniel Hawthorne
    978-0-8041-7157-1
    $8.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Aug 26, 2014
  • The Red Badge of Courage
    The Red Badge of Courage
    Stephen Crane
    978-0-8041-6884-7
    $8.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Feb 25, 2014
  • The Call of the Wild & White Fang
    The Call of the Wild & White Fang
    Jack London
    978-0-8041-6885-4
    $9.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Feb 25, 2014
  • The Enchanted Wanderer
    The Enchanted Wanderer
    And Other Stories
    Nikolai Leskov
    978-0-307-38887-2
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 14, 2014
  • The Divine Comedy
    The Divine Comedy
    The Unabridged Classic
    Dante Alighieri
    978-0-8041-6912-7
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    May 14, 2013
  • The Captain's Daughter and Other Stories
    The Captain's Daughter and Other Stories
    Alexander Pushkin
    978-0-307-83197-2
    $11.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    Feb 27, 2013
  • Anna Karenina (Movie Tie-in Edition)
    Anna Karenina (Movie Tie-in Edition)
    Official Tie-in Edition Including the screenplay by Tom Stoppard
    Leo Tolstoy
    978-0-345-80393-1
    $8.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    Oct 16, 2012
  • The Death of Ivan Ilyich
    The Death of Ivan Ilyich
    Leo Tolstoy
    978-0-307-95133-5
    $9.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 02, 2012
  • Hadji Murat
    Hadji Murat
    Leo Tolstoy
    978-0-307-95134-2
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 02, 2012
  • The Captain's Daughter
    The Captain's Daughter
    And Other Stories
    Alexander Pushkin
    978-0-307-94965-3
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Aug 07, 2012
  • The Age of Innocence
    The Age of Innocence
    Edith Wharton
    978-0-307-94951-6
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 05, 2012
  • The House of Mirth
    The House of Mirth
    Edith Wharton
    978-0-307-94952-3
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 05, 2012
  • Ethan Frome
    Ethan Frome
    Edith Wharton
    978-0-307-94953-0
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 05, 2012
  • The Custom of the Country
    The Custom of the Country
    Edith Wharton
    978-0-307-94954-7
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 05, 2012
  • Decameron
    Decameron
    Giovanni Boccaccio
    978-0-307-47217-5
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Feb 14, 2012
  • Great Expectations
    Great Expectations
    Charles Dickens
    978-0-307-94716-1
    $7.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 10, 2012
  • David Copperfield
    David Copperfield
    Charles Dickens
    978-0-307-94717-8
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 10, 2012
  • Oliver Twist
    Oliver Twist
    Charles Dickens
    978-0-307-94718-5
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 10, 2012
  • Hard Times
    Hard Times
    Charles Dickens
    978-0-307-94720-8
    $9.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 10, 2012
  • Parade's End
    Parade's End
    Ford Madox Ford
    978-0-307-74420-3
    $21.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 03, 2012
  • Bleak House
    Bleak House
    Charles Dickens
    978-0-307-94719-2
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 03, 2012
  • A Christmas Carol
    A Christmas Carol
    And Other Christmas Books
    Charles Dickens
    978-0-307-94721-5
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Nov 29, 2011
  • The Physiology of Taste
    The Physiology of Taste
    Or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy
    Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
    978-0-307-39037-0
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 04, 2011
  • The Fifth Queen
    The Fifth Queen
    Ford Madox Ford
    978-0-307-74491-3
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 04, 2011
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    Oscar Wilde
    978-0-307-74352-7
    $8.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jul 26, 2011
  • The Canterbury Tales
    The Canterbury Tales
    A Prose Version in Modern English
    Geoffrey Chaucer
    978-0-307-74353-4
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jul 12, 2011
  • Dracula
    Dracula
    Bram Stoker
    978-0-307-74330-5
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 14, 2011
  • Hawthorne's Short Stories
    Hawthorne's Short Stories
    Nathaniel Hawthorne
    978-0-307-74121-9
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 11, 2011
  • Sapphira and the Slave Girl
    Sapphira and the Slave Girl
    Willa Cather
    978-0-307-73965-0
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Dec 07, 2010
  • Alexander's Bridge
    Alexander's Bridge
    Willa Cather
    978-0-307-73966-7
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Dec 07, 2010
  • The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories
    The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories
    Leo Tolstoy
    978-0-307-38886-5
    $17.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 05, 2010
  • Bel Ami
    Bel Ami
    Guy De Maupassant
    978-0-307-74088-5
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 05, 2010
  • The Beautiful and Damned
    The Beautiful and Damned
    F. Scott Fitzgerald
    978-0-307-47635-7
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Aug 10, 2010
  • Tales of the Jazz Age
    Tales of the Jazz Age
    Stories
    F. Scott Fitzgerald
    978-0-307-47637-1
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Aug 10, 2010
  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
    The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
    A Novel
    Mark Twain
    978-0-307-47555-8
    $9.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Apr 06, 2010
  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
    Mark Twain
    978-0-307-47556-5
    $9.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Apr 06, 2010
  • The Original Frankenstein
    The Original Frankenstein
    Mary Shelley
    978-0-307-47442-1
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Sep 08, 2009
  • This Side of Paradise
    This Side of Paradise
    F. Scott Fitzgerald
    978-0-307-47451-3
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Sep 08, 2009
  • Flappers and Philosophers
    Flappers and Philosophers
    Stories
    F. Scott Fitzgerald
    978-0-307-47452-0
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Sep 08, 2009
  • Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
    Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
    Edgar Allan Poe
    978-0-307-47477-3
    $12.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Sep 01, 2009
  • Jane Eyre
    Jane Eyre
    Charlotte Bronte
    978-0-307-45519-2
    $9.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Apr 07, 2009
  • Villette
    Villette
    Charlotte Bronte
    978-0-307-45556-7
    $11.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Apr 07, 2009
  • War and Peace
    War and Peace
    Leo Tolstoy
    978-1-4000-7998-8
    $21.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Dec 02, 2008
  • God's Trombones
    God's Trombones
    Seven Negro Sermons in Verse
    James Weldon Johnson
    978-0-14-310541-1
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    May 27, 2008
  • The Shadow-Line
    The Shadow-Line
    A Confession
    Joseph Conrad
    978-0-307-38653-3
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 09, 2007
  • Northanger Abbey
    Northanger Abbey
    Jane Austen
    978-0-307-38683-0
    $8.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Sep 04, 2007
  • Emma
    Emma
    Jane Austen
    978-0-307-38684-7
    $9.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Sep 04, 2007
  • Persuasion
    Persuasion
    Jane Austen
    978-0-307-38685-4
    $7.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Sep 04, 2007
  • Pride and Prejudice
    Pride and Prejudice
    Jane Austen
    978-0-307-38686-1
    $7.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Sep 04, 2007
  • Clouds of Witness
    Clouds of Witness
    Dorothy L. Sayers
    978-0-593-46637-7
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 03, 2023
  • Boris Godunov, Little Tragedies, and Others
    Boris Godunov, Little Tragedies, and Others
    The Complete Plays
    Alexander Pushkin
    978-0-593-46756-5
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 03, 2023
  • Men Without Women
    Men Without Women
    Ernest Hemingway
    978-0-593-46884-5
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 03, 2023
  • The Sun Also Rises
    The Sun Also Rises
    Ernest Hemingway
    978-0-593-46634-6
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 25, 2022
  • Enough Rope
    Enough Rope
    A Book of Light Verse
    Dorothy Parker
    978-0-593-46635-3
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 25, 2022
  • Sister Carrie
    Sister Carrie
    Theodore Dreiser
    978-0-593-31488-3
    $9.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Dec 28, 2021
  • The Art of War
    The Art of War
    Sun Tzu
    978-0-593-31466-1
    $9.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Dec 21, 2021
  • Wuthering Heights
    Wuthering Heights
    Emily Bronte
    978-0-593-24403-6
    $8.00 US
    Paperback
    Modern Library
    Dec 07, 2021
  • A Passage to India
    A Passage to India
    E. M. Forster
    978-0-593-24156-1
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Modern Library
    Aug 10, 2021
  • An American Tragedy
    An American Tragedy
    Theodore Dreiser
    978-0-593-31332-9
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    May 25, 2021
  • The Waste Land and Other Poems
    The Waste Land and Other Poems
    T. S. Eliot
    978-0-593-31334-3
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    May 11, 2021
  • Fifty-Two Stories
    Fifty-Two Stories
    Anton Chekhov
    978-0-525-56238-2
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 19, 2021
  • Mrs. Dalloway
    Mrs. Dalloway
    Virginia Woolf
    978-0-593-31180-6
    $9.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 05, 2021
  • In Our Time
    In Our Time
    Ernest Hemingway
    978-0-593-31182-0
    $9.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 05, 2021
  • The Great Gatsby
    The Great Gatsby
    F. Scott Fitzgerald
    978-0-593-31184-4
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 05, 2021
  • Manhattan Transfer
    Manhattan Transfer
    John Dos Passos
    978-0-593-31205-6
    $9.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 05, 2021
  • The Prince
    The Prince
    Niccolo Machiavelli
    978-0-593-31086-1
    $8.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 13, 2020
  • The Wealth of Nations
    The Wealth of Nations
    Adam Smith
    978-0-593-31087-8
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 13, 2020
  • The Count of Monte Cristo
    The Count of Monte Cristo
    Alexandre Dumas
    978-0-593-08150-1
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 16, 2020
  • Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
    Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
    Jules Verne
    978-0-593-08151-8
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 16, 2020
  • Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I
    Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I
    Arthur Conan Doyle
    978-1-9848-9953-8
    $14.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Apr 14, 2020
  • Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume II
    Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume II
    Arthur Conan Doyle
    978-1-9848-9954-5
    $14.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Apr 14, 2020
  • A Passage to India
    A Passage to India
    E. M. Forster
    978-1-9848-9946-0
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 07, 2020
  • Little Women
    Little Women
    Louisa May Alcott
    978-1-9848-9885-2
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Nov 12, 2019
  • Leaves of Grass
    Leaves of Grass
    Walt Whitman
    978-1-9848-9755-8
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    May 28, 2019
  • Whose Body?
    Whose Body?
    The First Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery
    Dorothy L. Sayers
    978-0-525-56511-6
    $9.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Apr 30, 2019
  • New Hampshire
    New Hampshire
    Robert Frost
    978-0-525-56534-5
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 22, 2019
  • My Antonia
    My Antonia
    Introduction by Jane Smiley
    Willa Cather
    978-0-525-56286-3
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Mar 06, 2018
  • Novels, Tales, Journeys
    Novels, Tales, Journeys
    The Complete Prose of Alexander Pushkin
    Alexander Pushkin
    978-0-307-94988-2
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 17, 2017
  • All Passion Spent
    All Passion Spent
    Vita Sackville-West
    978-0-525-43397-2
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jul 11, 2017
  • The Edwardians
    The Edwardians
    Vita Sackville-West
    978-0-525-43399-6
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jul 11, 2017
  • The Rights of Man
    The Rights of Man
    H. G. Wells
    978-0-525-43234-0
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Mar 21, 2017
  • The Time Machine
    The Time Machine
    H. G. Wells
    978-0-525-43235-7
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Mar 21, 2017
  • Poems
    Poems
    William Blake
    978-1-101-97314-1
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Dec 13, 2016
  • The Mayor of Casterbridge
    The Mayor of Casterbridge
    Thomas Hardy
    978-0-345-80401-3
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Nov 08, 2016
  • Notes from a Dead House
    Notes from a Dead House
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-307-94987-5
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Mar 22, 2016
  • In the Land of Pain
    In the Land of Pain
    Alphonse Daudet
    978-1-101-97086-7
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Mar 22, 2016
  • Tess of the D'Urbervilles
    Tess of the D'Urbervilles
    Thomas Hardy
    978-0-345-80398-6
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Mar 03, 2015
  • The Prince and the Pauper
    The Prince and the Pauper
    Mark Twain
    978-1-101-87310-6
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Feb 03, 2015
  • Pudd'nhead Wilson
    Pudd'nhead Wilson
    Mark Twain
    978-1-101-87311-3
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Feb 03, 2015
  • Walden & Civil Disobedience
    Walden & Civil Disobedience
    Henry David Thoreau
    978-0-8041-7156-4
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Aug 26, 2014
  • The Scarlet Letter
    The Scarlet Letter
    A Romance
    Nathaniel Hawthorne
    978-0-8041-7157-1
    $8.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Aug 26, 2014
  • The Red Badge of Courage
    The Red Badge of Courage
    Stephen Crane
    978-0-8041-6884-7
    $8.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Feb 25, 2014
  • The Call of the Wild & White Fang
    The Call of the Wild & White Fang
    Jack London
    978-0-8041-6885-4
    $9.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Feb 25, 2014
  • The Enchanted Wanderer
    The Enchanted Wanderer
    And Other Stories
    Nikolai Leskov
    978-0-307-38887-2
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 14, 2014
  • The Divine Comedy
    The Divine Comedy
    The Unabridged Classic
    Dante Alighieri
    978-0-8041-6912-7
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    May 14, 2013
  • The Captain's Daughter and Other Stories
    The Captain's Daughter and Other Stories
    Alexander Pushkin
    978-0-307-83197-2
    $11.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    Feb 27, 2013
  • Anna Karenina (Movie Tie-in Edition)
    Anna Karenina (Movie Tie-in Edition)
    Official Tie-in Edition Including the screenplay by Tom Stoppard
    Leo Tolstoy
    978-0-345-80393-1
    $8.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    Oct 16, 2012
  • The Death of Ivan Ilyich
    The Death of Ivan Ilyich
    Leo Tolstoy
    978-0-307-95133-5
    $9.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 02, 2012
  • Hadji Murat
    Hadji Murat
    Leo Tolstoy
    978-0-307-95134-2
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 02, 2012
  • The Captain's Daughter
    The Captain's Daughter
    And Other Stories
    Alexander Pushkin
    978-0-307-94965-3
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Aug 07, 2012
  • The Age of Innocence
    The Age of Innocence
    Edith Wharton
    978-0-307-94951-6
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 05, 2012
  • The House of Mirth
    The House of Mirth
    Edith Wharton
    978-0-307-94952-3
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 05, 2012
  • Ethan Frome
    Ethan Frome
    Edith Wharton
    978-0-307-94953-0
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 05, 2012
  • The Custom of the Country
    The Custom of the Country
    Edith Wharton
    978-0-307-94954-7
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 05, 2012
  • Decameron
    Decameron
    Giovanni Boccaccio
    978-0-307-47217-5
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Feb 14, 2012
  • Great Expectations
    Great Expectations
    Charles Dickens
    978-0-307-94716-1
    $7.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 10, 2012
  • David Copperfield
    David Copperfield
    Charles Dickens
    978-0-307-94717-8
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 10, 2012
  • Oliver Twist
    Oliver Twist
    Charles Dickens
    978-0-307-94718-5
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 10, 2012
  • Hard Times
    Hard Times
    Charles Dickens
    978-0-307-94720-8
    $9.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 10, 2012
  • Parade's End
    Parade's End
    Ford Madox Ford
    978-0-307-74420-3
    $21.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 03, 2012
  • Bleak House
    Bleak House
    Charles Dickens
    978-0-307-94719-2
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 03, 2012
  • A Christmas Carol
    A Christmas Carol
    And Other Christmas Books
    Charles Dickens
    978-0-307-94721-5
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Nov 29, 2011
  • The Physiology of Taste
    The Physiology of Taste
    Or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy
    Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
    978-0-307-39037-0
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 04, 2011
  • The Fifth Queen
    The Fifth Queen
    Ford Madox Ford
    978-0-307-74491-3
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 04, 2011
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    Oscar Wilde
    978-0-307-74352-7
    $8.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jul 26, 2011
  • The Canterbury Tales
    The Canterbury Tales
    A Prose Version in Modern English
    Geoffrey Chaucer
    978-0-307-74353-4
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jul 12, 2011
  • Dracula
    Dracula
    Bram Stoker
    978-0-307-74330-5
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 14, 2011
  • Hawthorne's Short Stories
    Hawthorne's Short Stories
    Nathaniel Hawthorne
    978-0-307-74121-9
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 11, 2011
  • Sapphira and the Slave Girl
    Sapphira and the Slave Girl
    Willa Cather
    978-0-307-73965-0
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Dec 07, 2010
  • Alexander's Bridge
    Alexander's Bridge
    Willa Cather
    978-0-307-73966-7
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Dec 07, 2010
  • The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories
    The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories
    Leo Tolstoy
    978-0-307-38886-5
    $17.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 05, 2010
  • Bel Ami
    Bel Ami
    Guy De Maupassant
    978-0-307-74088-5
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 05, 2010
  • The Beautiful and Damned
    The Beautiful and Damned
    F. Scott Fitzgerald
    978-0-307-47635-7
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Aug 10, 2010
  • Tales of the Jazz Age
    Tales of the Jazz Age
    Stories
    F. Scott Fitzgerald
    978-0-307-47637-1
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Aug 10, 2010
  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
    The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
    A Novel
    Mark Twain
    978-0-307-47555-8
    $9.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Apr 06, 2010
  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
    Mark Twain
    978-0-307-47556-5
    $9.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Apr 06, 2010
  • The Original Frankenstein
    The Original Frankenstein
    Mary Shelley
    978-0-307-47442-1
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Sep 08, 2009
  • This Side of Paradise
    This Side of Paradise
    F. Scott Fitzgerald
    978-0-307-47451-3
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Sep 08, 2009
  • Flappers and Philosophers
    Flappers and Philosophers
    Stories
    F. Scott Fitzgerald
    978-0-307-47452-0
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Sep 08, 2009
  • Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
    Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
    Edgar Allan Poe
    978-0-307-47477-3
    $12.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Sep 01, 2009
  • Jane Eyre
    Jane Eyre
    Charlotte Bronte
    978-0-307-45519-2
    $9.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Apr 07, 2009
  • Villette
    Villette
    Charlotte Bronte
    978-0-307-45556-7
    $11.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Apr 07, 2009
  • War and Peace
    War and Peace
    Leo Tolstoy
    978-1-4000-7998-8
    $21.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Dec 02, 2008
  • God's Trombones
    God's Trombones
    Seven Negro Sermons in Verse
    James Weldon Johnson
    978-0-14-310541-1
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    May 27, 2008
  • The Shadow-Line
    The Shadow-Line
    A Confession
    Joseph Conrad
    978-0-307-38653-3
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 09, 2007
  • Northanger Abbey
    Northanger Abbey
    Jane Austen
    978-0-307-38683-0
    $8.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Sep 04, 2007
  • Emma
    Emma
    Jane Austen
    978-0-307-38684-7
    $9.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Sep 04, 2007
  • Persuasion
    Persuasion
    Jane Austen
    978-0-307-38685-4
    $7.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Sep 04, 2007
  • Pride and Prejudice
    Pride and Prejudice
    Jane Austen
    978-0-307-38686-1
    $7.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Sep 04, 2007

Other Books by this Author

  • The Modern Library Collection Essential Russian Novels 4-Book Bundle
    The Modern Library Collection Essential Russian Novels 4-Book Bundle
    Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy
    978-0-8129-8448-4
    $2.99 US
    Ebook
    Modern Library
    Sep 10, 2012
  • The Eternal Husband and Other Stories
    The Eternal Husband and Other Stories
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-8129-8337-1
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Modern Library
    Jan 03, 2012
  • The Idiot
    The Idiot
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-375-70224-2
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jul 08, 2003
  • The Idiot
    The Idiot
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-679-64242-8
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Modern Library
    Apr 08, 2003
  • The Gambler
    The Gambler
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-8129-6693-0
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Modern Library
    Apr 08, 2003
  • The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky
    The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-375-75688-7
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Modern Library
    Feb 13, 2001
  • Crime and Punishment
    Crime and Punishment
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-553-21175-7
    $7.95 US
    Mass Market Paperback
    Bantam Classics
    Oct 15, 1996
  • Demons
    Demons
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-679-73451-2
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Aug 01, 1995
  • Crime and Punishment
    Crime and Punishment
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-679-73450-5
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Mar 02, 1993
  • The Brothers Karamazov
    The Brothers Karamazov
    Introduction by Malcolm Jones
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-679-41003-4
    $28.00 US
    Hardcover
    Everyman's Library
    Apr 28, 1992
  • Notes From Underground
    Notes From Underground
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-553-21144-3
    $5.95 US
    Mass Market Paperback
    Bantam Classics
    Oct 01, 1983
  • The Idiot
    The Idiot
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-553-21352-2
    $6.95 US
    Mass Market Paperback
    Bantam Classics
    Jul 01, 1983
  • The Modern Library Collection Essential Russian Novels 4-Book Bundle
    The Modern Library Collection Essential Russian Novels 4-Book Bundle
    Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy
    978-0-8129-8448-4
    $2.99 US
    Ebook
    Modern Library
    Sep 10, 2012
  • The Eternal Husband and Other Stories
    The Eternal Husband and Other Stories
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-8129-8337-1
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Modern Library
    Jan 03, 2012
  • The Idiot
    The Idiot
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-375-70224-2
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jul 08, 2003
  • The Idiot
    The Idiot
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-679-64242-8
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Modern Library
    Apr 08, 2003
  • The Gambler
    The Gambler
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-8129-6693-0
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Modern Library
    Apr 08, 2003
  • The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky
    The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-375-75688-7
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Modern Library
    Feb 13, 2001
  • Crime and Punishment
    Crime and Punishment
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-553-21175-7
    $7.95 US
    Mass Market Paperback
    Bantam Classics
    Oct 15, 1996
  • Demons
    Demons
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-679-73451-2
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Aug 01, 1995
  • Crime and Punishment
    Crime and Punishment
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-679-73450-5
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Mar 02, 1993
  • The Brothers Karamazov
    The Brothers Karamazov
    Introduction by Malcolm Jones
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-679-41003-4
    $28.00 US
    Hardcover
    Everyman's Library
    Apr 28, 1992
  • Notes From Underground
    Notes From Underground
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-553-21144-3
    $5.95 US
    Mass Market Paperback
    Bantam Classics
    Oct 01, 1983
  • The Idiot
    The Idiot
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    978-0-553-21352-2
    $6.95 US
    Mass Market Paperback
    Bantam Classics
    Jul 01, 1983
 Keep in touch!
Sign up for news from Penguin Random House Higher Education.
Subscribe
Connect with Us!

Get the latest news on all things Higher Education. Learn about our books, authors, teacher events, and more!

Friend us on Facebook!

Follow us on Twitter!

Subscribe on YouTube!

Our mission is to foster a universal passion for reading by partnering with authors to help create stories and communicate ideas that inform, entertain, and inspire.

Privacy Policy   |   Terms of Use

© 2022 Penguin Random House

About Higher Education

  • About Us
  • Digital Solutions
  • FAQs
  • Conferences
  • Submit a desk/exam request
  • Contact your Higher Education Representative
  • Browse & subscribe to our newsletters

Penguin Random House Education

  • Elementary
  • Secondary
  • Higher Ed
  • Common Reads

Penguin Random House

  • penguinrandomhouse.com
  • global.penguinrandomhouse.com
  • Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau

About Higher Education

  • About Us
  • Digital Solutions
  • FAQs
  • Conferences

Penguin Random House Education

  • Elementary
  • Secondary
  • Higher Ed
  • Common Reads
  • Submit a desk/exam request
  • Contact your Higher Education Representative
  • Browse & subscribe to our newsletters

Penguin Random House

  • penguinrandomhouse.com
  • global.penguinrandomhouse.com
  • Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau

Privacy Policy   |   Terms of Use

© 2022 Penguin Random House
Back to Top

/