Last of all (or possibly first of all) some readers may like to explore W.J. Leatherbarrow’s magisterial and invaluable Reference Guide, which lists, with commentary, over twelve thousand books and articles in many languages by and about Dostoevsky. Many of them are, of course, in English and many of them are relevant to The Brothers Karamazov. This is a book above all for the specialist, but for him or her it is indispensable.

So I return to my starting point. That, for better or for worse, is the fate of classics.

Malcolm V. Jones

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bakhtin, Mikhail, Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, University of Manchester Press, Manchester, 1984.

Belknap, Robert, The Structure of The Brothers Karamazov’, Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Illinois, 1989.

— The Genesis of ’The Brothers Karamazov’, Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Illinois, 1990.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor, The Notebooks for ‘The Brothers Karamazov’, edited and translated by Edward Wasiolek, Chicago University Press, Chicago and London, 1971.

Gibson, A. Boyce, The Religion of Dostoevsky, S. F. V. Press, London, 1973

Jones, Malcolm V., and Terry, Garth M., eds., New Essays on Dostoyevsky, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983.

Kjetsaa, Geir, Fyodor Dostoyevsky: A Writer’s Life, Macmillan, London, 1987.

Leatherbarrow, W. J., Fedor Dostoevsky, a reference guide, G. K. Hall & Co., Boston, Mass., 1990.

Mochulsky, Konstantin, Dostoevsky, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1967.

Peace, Richard A., Dostoyevsky, an Examination of the Major Novels, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971.

Sandoz, Ellis, Political Apocalypse: Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor, Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, 1971.

Sutherland Stewart R., Atheism and the Rejection of God: Contemporary Philosophy and ‘ The Brothers Karamazov’, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1977.

Terras, Victor, A Karamazov Companion, University of Wisconsin Press, Wisconsin, 1981.

Thompson, Diane Denning, The Brothers Karamazov and the Poetics of Memory, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991.

List of Characters

The following list comprises the names of the novel’s main characters, with variants and pronunciation. Russian names are composed of first name, patronymic (from the father’s first name), and family name. Formal address requires the use of first name and patronymic; diminutives are commonly used among family and friends and are for the most part endearing, but in a certain blunt form (Katka, Mitka, Alyoshka, Rakitka) can be insulting and dismissive. Stressed syllables are indicated by italics. N.B. The z in Karamazov is pronounced like the z in zoo, not like the z in Mozart.

Karamazov, Fyodor Pavlovich

Dmitri Fyodorovich (Mitya, Mitka, Mitenka, Mitri Fyodorovich) Ivan Fyodorovich (Vanya, Vanka, Vanechka)

Alexei Fyodorovich (Alyosha, Alyoshka, Alyoshenka, Alyoshechka, Alexeichik, Lyosha, Lyoshenka)

Smerdyakov, Pavel Fyodorovich

Svetlov, AgrafenO Alexandrovna (Grushenka, Grusha, Grushka)

Verkhovtsev, Katerina Ivanovna (Katya, Katka, Katenka)

Zosima (Zinovy before he became a monk)

Snegiryov, Nikolai Ilyich Arina Petrovna Varvara Nikolaevna (Varya) Nina Nikolaevna (Ninochka) Ilyusha (Ilyushechka, Ilyushka)

Krasotkin, Nikolai Ivanov (Kolya)

Khokhlakov, Katerina Osipovna Liza (Lise) List of Characters

Kutuzov, Grigory Vasilievich (also Vasiliev) MarfaIgnatievna (also Ignatieva)

Rakitin, Mikhail Osipovich (Misha, Rakitka, Rakitushka)

Paissy

Ferapont

Ippolit Kirillovich (no family name)

Nelyudov, Nikolai Parfenovich

Fetyufcovich

Herzenstube

Maximov (Maximushka)

Kalganov, Pyotr Fomich (Petrusha)

Perkhotin, Pyotr Ilyich

Miusov, Pyotr Alexandrovich

Trifon Borisovich (also Borisich)

Fedosya Markovna (Fenya, also Fedosya Markov)

Samsonov, Kuzma Kuzmich

Lizaveta Smerdyashchaya (Stinking Lizaveta; no family name)

Makarov, Mikhail Makarovich (also Makarich)

Mussyalovich

Vrublevsky

Maria Kondratievna (no family name)

Varvmsky

THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV

Dedicated to Anna Grigorievna Dostoevsky

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of

wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth

alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

John 12:24

From the Author

Starting out on the biography of my hero, Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov, I find myself in some perplexity. Namely, that while I do call Alexei Fyodorovich my hero, still, I myself know that he is by no means a great man, so that I can foresee the inevitable questions, such as: What is notable about your Alexei Fyodorovich that you should choose him for your hero? What has he really done? To whom is he known, and for what? Why should I, the reader, spend my time studying the facts of his life?

This last question is the most fateful one, for I can only reply: perhaps you will see from the novel. But suppose they read the novel and do not see, do not agree with the noteworthiness of my Alexei Fyodorovich? I say this because, to my sorrow, I foresee it. To me he is noteworthy, but I decidedly doubt that I shall succeed in proving it to the reader. The thing is that he does, perhaps, make a figure, but a figure of an indefinite, indeterminate sort. Though it would be strange to demand clarity from people in a time like ours. One thing, perhaps, is rather doubtless: he is a strange man, even an odd one. But strangeness and oddity will sooner harm than justify any claim to attention, especially when everyone is striving to unite particulars and find at least some general sense in the general senselessness. Whereas an odd man is most often a particular and isolated case. Is that not so?

Now if you do not agree with this last point and reply: “Not so” or “Not always,” then perhaps I shall take heart concerning the significance of my hero, Alexei Fyodorovich. For not only is an odd man “not always” a particular and isolated case, but, on the contrary, it sometimes happens that it is precisely he, perhaps, who bears within himself the heart of the whole, while the other people of his epoch have all for some reason been torn away from it for a time by some kind of flooding wind.

I would not, in fact, venture into these rather vague and uninteresting explanations but would simply begin without any introduction—if they like it, they’ll read it as it is—but the trouble is that while I have just one biography, I have two novels. The main novel is the second one—about the activities of my hero in our time, that is, in our present, current moment. As for the first novel, it already took place thirteen years ago and is even almost not a novel at all but just one moment from my hero’s early youth. It is impossible for me to do without this first novel, or much in the second novel will be incomprehensible. Thus my original difficulty becomes even more complicated: for if I, that is, the biographer himself, think that even one novel may, perhaps, be unwarranted for such a humble and indefinite hero, then how will it look if I appear with two; and what can explain such presumption on my part?