Fyodor Dostoyevsky 
The Brothers Karamazov (Centaur Classics) [The 100 greatest novels of all time – #8] 

‘The most magnificent novel ever written.’ —Sigmund Freud

‘‘The Brothers Karamazov’ made a deep impression on me…’ —James Joyce

‘Dostoyevsky is the only psychologist from whom I have anything to learn.’ —Friedrich Nietzsche

‘‘The Brothers Karamazov’ is maybe the greatest novel of all time.’ —Walker Percy

‘Dostoyevsky is one who has not only influenced me a lot, but that I have got a great deal of pleasure out of reading.’ —William Faulkner



‘The Brothers Karamazov’, Dostoyevsky’s crowning achievement, is a tale of patricide and family rivalry that embodies the moral and spiritual dissolution of an entire society (Russia in the 1870s). It created a national furor comparable only to the excitement stirred by the publication, in 1866, of Crime and Punishment. To Dostoyevsky, ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ captured the quintessence of Russian character in all its exaltation, compassion, and profligacy. Significantly, the book was on Tolstoy’s bedside table when he died. Readers in every language have since accepted Dostoyevsky’s own evaluation of this work and have gone further by proclaiming it one of the few great novels of all ages and countries.