Brothers Karamazov

By the 1870s, Dostoevsky had become a famous writer. He was loved by readers and compared often by critics to Shakespeare. His reputation as a subversive had entirely subsided - so much so that he was a frequent visitor in the royal court, and was an informal tutor to the tsar's nephews. The great man had traveled a long way - from the gallows to the Winter Palace - in a span of twenty years.

Perhaps the greatest contribution to Dostoevsky's new fame was his weekly column in Grazhdanin (The Citizen), called "A Writer's Diary." The column became so popular that Dostoevsky would eventually publish the essays independently, every month. The publication drew letters from all over Russia, asking Dostoevksy's opinion about all matters Russian. His responses were unique and personal, delivered in an intimate tone, as if he were having a personal conversation with his reader.

Through "A Writer's Diary," Dostoevsky became a voice of the nation and for the nation. Because the column appeared originally in Grazhdanin (whose editor was well-connected to the royal family), Dostoevsky was seen as speaking for official and literary circles. But he was also sympathetic to the new brood of Russian revolutionaries, who, in the 1870s, were calling for ethical (not violent) social change. In short, Dostoevsky was popular because he seemed to speak to all of Russia's literati- the official and the revolutionary. In doing so, he achieved the influence and fame that he'd spent his life pursuing.

Oddly, his fame was balanced by a quiet domestic life. By all accounts, Dostoevsky was a tender and tranquil husband and a playful father, fond of reading to his children, taking them often to the theater, dancing with them, and in all ways enjoying them. His marriage was also a source of great comfort and happiness. Anna had proved herself to be not only Dostoevsky's spiritual savior, but his financial savior as well. She worked hard to get Dostoevsky out of debt (a feat she achieved just one year before he died by releasing his serialized novels in separate volumes).

Still, even these happy years would be marked by struggle and suffering. Dostoevsky was stricken more and more frequently with bouts of epilepsy. Age had weakened him and had made it more difficult to recover from the attacks. Moreover, Dostoevsky would in these years have one more tragedy to face and endure: the loss of his three-year-old son, Alyosha.

Despite his poor health and personal tragedies, Dostoevsky yearned to write the novel that had so far gone unwritten. It would be his most demanding writing effort by far. Even in the past, Dostoevsky had been tormented by every line of his writing. His perfectionism made him a taskmaster:

[He] never tried to evade the enormous difficulties that confronted him in giving artistic expression to his ideas...The tensions of the creative process, which had him jotting dozens of plans, characters, and episodes down on paper, would suddenly be discharged with long break periods, during which he would have agonizing doubts about his ability to realize his concept. He began to write Crime and Punishment in the summer of 1865; in November he burned everything he had written and started developing his ideas anew. He revised The Idiot eight times...It is evident that during his first half year of his work on The Devils [Demons] he kept tearing up what he had written and starting all over again: he changed his plan at least ten times, drafted a huge number of variations, lost his reference files in the mountain of paper he had covered with writing, and at times was in complete despair at the complexity of the novel he had conceived.
[Grossman 506]

When it came to Brothers Karamazov, however, Dostoevsky's writing process, always difficult, was even more daunting as he faced the challenge of writing what would be the culmination of his greatest ideas. The book took three years to write. Its basic plot, according to Dostoevsky's journal, was simple:

1) The rivalry between father and eldest son over a woman;
2) The murder of the father;
3) The trials (actual and spiritual) of his sons.
[Grossman 576]

His journal points to an equally simple plan for the themes:

1) One brother is an atheist;
2) The second is a fanatic;
3) The third is of the future generation, a man of the people.
(And, of course, Dostoevsky adds parenthetically, there is also the newest generation, the children).
[Grossman 572]

But nothing about this masterpiece would prove to be simple. Into this work, Dostoevsky would pour all of his deepest concerns. Around the simple murder story, Dostoevsky would raise questions of guilt and innocence. He would position European nihilist against Russian Christian. He would explore the natures of the criminal and the hero. He would examine the fundamental propositions of Orthodox Christianity and would seek to define the essence of love. And finally, he would try to light the way for the next generation, instructing them to follow the ways of brotherhood and Christian love.

Read on: After word

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This page written by Karen Gocsik.