- The Brothers Karamazov -

Regarded by many to be the greatest novel of all time, The Brothers Karamazov is everything one can dream of and more. As the author himself states it´s a book which "sums up all my beliefs". It´s the story of three brothers - one of them, Alyosha, a saint, much like Prince Mishkin, from " The Idiot"; Ivan, a philosopher, atheist and cold; and Mytia, the one with a dual nature, heavenly and devishly at the same time. Their father, Fyodor Pavlovich, is an old libertine, who never cared about his sons, and never gave them any love at all - he is an impersionation of all the evil there can be in a human soul.

This evil, which has it´s roots on sensuality, is exactly what the three sons abhor most - the last thing they would like to be is one like their father... They see themselves as of the same blood, of the same ´Karamazov blood´ as their father - they live under constant inner struggle, their morality against their blood.

The main question treated in this book, however, is atheism. Ivan Karamazov (the atheist brother) states that, if there is no God, everything is permitted - the same amoralism, or moral nihilism, preached, for instance, by Nietzsche in Thus Spake Zarathustra: "Nothing is true, everything is permitted." The impact, the consequences of such an ideology is the central theme of this book - if everything is permitted, why not rob, why not kill? If there is no immortality of the soul, why not embrace all earthly pleasures, the Fyodor Pavlovich does?

As a contrast to the devilish Fyodor Pavlovich, Dosotvesky gives us a monk, Zosima, who is the not only the perfect Christian, but also the bearer of Dostoevsky´s religious ideas. In the middle of the book, we are told Zosima´s life and doctrines - a beautiful, yet likely, story, a story of one´s purification through love for God.

Worthy of mentioning is also a story told by Ivan Karamazov, entitled The Grand Inquisitor. In this story, set on the 15th century, Jesus comes back to earth, and is arrested by the Inquisition. The Grand Inquisitor comes over, and starts talking to Him - reproaching Him - for not having accepted what the devil had offered when He walked through the desert. The Inquisitor complains about the worst thing Jesus ever did, which was leaving human beings free to choose their creed, free to believe or not to do so, free to do good or evil - he states that freedom is the most painful of all human faculties, and that´s exactly how they, members of the Inquisition, managed to take away from man. They made man happy, by taking away that which made him suffer - his freedom!

Of course, as usual, there are inforgetful detailed minor characters, and a lovely set of children, who makes acquaintance to Alyosha. We witness how adult they really are, being like adults in almost everything: in loving and hating, in cheering and suffering... The only difference is that children know how to forgive.

READ DOSTOESVKY´S OWN VIEW ON " THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV" -

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