Abby’s Reviews > The Brothers Karamazov > Status Update

“Gentlemen of the jury, there are moments when, in the course of our duties, we ourselves become almost afraid in the face of man, afraid also for man!”

This book has managed to make the decryption of a legal trial interesting and chaotic.

(I’m also finally getting closer to the end and still have no idea what to predict for it)

“Are they found to be in our cynicism, In the premature exhaustion of the mind and imagination of our society as yet so young, but grown untimely decrepit?”

This prosecutor is very profoundly philosophical.

“Mitya had wounded her by his unfaithfulness to the depths of her soul, and her soul did not forgive.”

The chaos of the trial is both intense, and hilarious. Mitya’s trail of relationships is proving a significant factor in his fate.

(Yes I’m still reading this book, I’m aware it’s taking me forever)

The fact that even at this stage of the book I can’t predict the ending makes it so much more intriguing.

I’m loving the journey of the trial, and I genuinely feel sympathy for Mitya’s character, his erratic characterisation impacting his ability to reason.

Excited to see how this develops, I genuinely can’t predict the ending.

I’ve also found myself feeling sympathy for Mitya’s character that I didn’t initially have, the same for Ivan. The character exploration of this book really has been captivating.

“You are a falsehood, you are my illness, you are a ghost. Only I do not know how to destroy you, and perceive that for a certain time I must suffer you. You are a hallucination I am having. You are the embodiment of myself, but only one side of me..of my thoughts and emotions.”

This entire chapter was probably my absolute favourite so far. Such a powerful look into the psyche.

“Oh I have forgotten to remember her,” Smerdyakov said with a contemptuous smile, and again suddenly, turning his face back towards Ivan, fixed him with a frenziedly hateful stare, the same stare he had given him at his last visit a month before.”

Each character in this book is just so well explored.

“Why this was he was reluctant to analyse at the time, even feeling a repulsion at digging about in this feelings.”

The way this book articulates tension and realisation in these last few chapters has been so interesting, playing on the relationships of the brothers to explore suspicion.

“The Karamazovs are not scoundrels, but philosophers, because all real Russian people are philosophers, but you, though you’ve done some studying are not a philosopher, you are a shit.”

This book really has it all, religious questioning, profound depictions of family and romantic love.. and humour

“I shall always love you dreadfully for having so quickly allowed me not to love you.”

How can a book about such bleak and dark circumstances contain some of the most beautifully profound perspectives of love?