Three brothers— Dimitry, Ivan and Alexei— seem to have nothing in common apart from their father: Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, an aging buffoon leading a life of debauchery who has never concerned himself with his children, until each brother in adulthood decides to visit their father’s home. Mitya, the hothead, goes because he needs money. Ivan, the intellectual, goes to test his dark ideas about evil and faith. Alexei, the young saint, goes to guide his wayward kin back onto the path of good. This epic tale is rife with every imaginable emotion, every possible subject and every conceivable type of personality, making it as near perfection as any novel can get.
Dostoyevsky was a G., for Genius. How many ex-cons are famous novelists these days? Goes to show you that Tsarist Russia probably had more social mobility than our present day.
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