StoryPDFThe Brothers KaramazovFyodor Dostoevsky✦
The Brothers Karamazov
Complete textThe sons of Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov return into a family atmosphere charged by money disputes, desire, and longstanding resentment. Dmitri, Ivan, and Alyosha respond differently to their father's conduct, while conflicts in the household open onto questions of faith, freedom, and responsibility.
Continue readingAbout The Brothers Karamazov
Dostoevsky gives philosophical arguments the urgency of personal encounters. Confessions, accusations, and stories within the story complicate the relationship between declared beliefs and actual behavior. Its large cast requires patient attention, but the central pressure is intimate: how people answer for their actions and for the suffering they recognize in one another.
Reading focus
Explore an intense family conflict where arguments about belief and responsibility continually collide with money, jealousy, and the need for love.
This reading edition contains 350,201 words in 97 original sections. Read the text online with adjustable type and three colour themes, or keep a printable PDF.
Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky. Language: English. Reading edition: 28 October 2026.
Opening excerpt
Alexey Fyodorovitch Karamazov was the third son of Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov, a land owner well known in our district in his own day, and still remembered among us owing to his gloomy and tragic death, which happened thirteen years ago, and which I shall describe in its proper place. For the present I will only say that this “landowner”—for so we used to call him, although he hardly spent a day of his life on his own estate—was a strange type, yet one pretty frequently to be met with, a type abject and vicious and at the same time senseless. But he was one of those senseless persons who are very well capable of looking after their worldly affairs, and, apparently, after nothing else.…
Contents
All sections- Book I. The History Of A Family — Chapter I. Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov7 min
- Book I. The History Of A Family — Chapter II. He Gets Rid Of His Eldest Son6 min
- Book I. The History Of A Family — Chapter III. The Second Marriage And The Second Family12 min
- Book I. The History Of A Family — Chapter IV. The Third Son, Alyosha16 min
- Book I. The History Of A Family — Chapter V. Elders17 min
- Book II. An Unfortunate Gathering — Chapter I. They Arrive At The Monastery9 min
- Book II. An Unfortunate Gathering — Chapter II. The Old Buffoon17 min
- Book II. An Unfortunate Gathering — Chapter III. Peasant Women Who Have Faith15 min
- Book II. An Unfortunate Gathering — Chapter IV. A Lady Of Little Faith14 min
- Book II. An Unfortunate Gathering — Chapter V. So Be It! So Be It!17 min
- Book II. An Unfortunate Gathering — Chapter VI. Why Is Such A Man Alive?18 min
- Book II. An Unfortunate Gathering — Chapter VII. A Young Man Bent On A Career16 min
- Book II. An Unfortunate Gathering — Chapter VIII. The Scandalous Scene17 min
- Book III. The Sensualists — Chapter I. In The Servants’ Quarters11 min
- Book III. The Sensualists — Chapter II. Lizaveta8 min
- Book III. The Sensualists — Chapter III. The Confession Of A Passionate Heart—In Verse16 min
- Book III. The Sensualists — Chapter IV. The Confession Of A Passionate Heart—In Anecdote16 min
- Book III. The Sensualists — Chapter V. The Confession Of A Passionate Heart—“Heels Up”16 min
- Book III. The Sensualists — Chapter VI. Smerdyakov10 min
- Book III. The Sensualists — Chapter VII. The Controversy10 min
- Book III. The Sensualists — Chapter VIII. Over The Brandy14 min
- Book III. The Sensualists — Chapter IX. The Sensualists10 min
- Book III. The Sensualists — Chapter X. Both Together21 min
- Book III. The Sensualists — Chapter XI. Another Reputation Ruined15 min
- Book IV. Lacerations — Chapter I. Father Ferapont19 min
- Book IV. Lacerations — Chapter II. At His Father’s9 min
- Book IV. Lacerations — Chapter III. A Meeting With The Schoolboys9 min
- Book IV. Lacerations — Chapter IV. At The Hohlakovs’11 min
- Book IV. Lacerations — Chapter V. A Laceration In The Drawing-Room21 min
- Book IV. Lacerations — Chapter VI. A Laceration In The Cottage16 min
- Book IV. Lacerations — Chapter VII. And In The Open Air20 min
- Book V. Pro And Contra — Chapter I. The Engagement21 min
- Book V. Pro And Contra — Chapter II. Smerdyakov With A Guitar12 min
- Book V. Pro And Contra — Chapter III. The Brothers Make Friends18 min
- Book V. Pro And Contra — Chapter IV. Rebellion23 min
- Book V. Pro And Contra — Chapter V. The Grand Inquisitor43 min
- Book V. Pro And Contra — Chapter VI. For Awhile A Very Obscure One20 min
- Book V. Pro And Contra — Chapter VII. “It’s Always Worth While Speaking To A Clever Man”16 min
- Book VI. The Russian Monk — Chapter I. Father Zossima And His Visitors29 min
- Book VI. The Russian Monk — Chapter II. The Duel42 min
- Book VI. The Russian Monk — Chapter III. Conversations And Exhortations Of Father Zossima29 min
- Book VII. Alyosha — Chapter I. The Breath Of Corruption24 min
- Book VII. Alyosha — Chapter II. A Critical Moment12 min
- Book VII. Alyosha — Chapter III. An Onion36 min
- Book VII. Alyosha — Chapter IV. Cana Of Galilee10 min
- Book VIII. Mitya — Chapter I. Kuzma Samsonov22 min
- Book VIII. Mitya — Chapter II. Lyagavy14 min
- Book VIII. Mitya — Chapter III. Gold-Mines22 min
- Book VIII. Mitya — Chapter IV. In The Dark11 min
- Book VIII. Mitya — Chapter V. A Sudden Resolution29 min
- Book VIII. Mitya — Chapter VI. “I Am Coming, Too!”15 min
- Book VIII. Mitya — Chapter VII. The First And Rightful Lover29 min
- Book VIII. Mitya — Chapter VIII. Delirium26 min
- Book IX. The Preliminary Investigation — Chapter I. The Beginning Of Perhotin’s Official Career13 min
- Book IX. The Preliminary Investigation — Chapter II. The Alarm13 min
- Book IX. The Preliminary Investigation — Chapter III. The Sufferings Of A Soul, The First Ordeal17 min
- Book IX. The Preliminary Investigation — Chapter IV. The Second Ordeal14 min
- Book IX. The Preliminary Investigation — Chapter V. The Third Ordeal21 min
- Book IX. The Preliminary Investigation — Chapter VI. The Prosecutor Catches Mitya15 min
- Book IX. The Preliminary Investigation — Chapter VII. Mitya’s Great Secret. Received With Hisses22 min
- Book IX. The Preliminary Investigation — Chapter VIII. The Evidence Of The Witnesses. The Babe18 min
- Book IX. The Preliminary Investigation — Chapter IX. They Carry Mitya Away7 min
- Book X. The Boys — Chapter I. Kolya Krassotkin11 min
- Book X. The Boys — Chapter II. Children11 min
- Book X. The Boys — Chapter III. The Schoolboy14 min
- Book X. The Boys — Chapter IV. The Lost Dog15 min
- Book X. The Boys — Chapter V. By Ilusha’s Bedside31 min
- Book X. The Boys — Chapter VI. Precocity12 min
- Book X. The Boys — Chapter VII. Ilusha7 min
- Book XI. Ivan — Chapter I. At Grushenka’s18 min
- Book XI. Ivan — Chapter II. The Injured Foot20 min
- Book XI. Ivan — Chapter III. A Little Demon12 min
- Book XI. Ivan — Chapter IV. A Hymn And A Secret27 min
- Book XI. Ivan — Chapter V. Not You, Not You!11 min
- Book XI. Ivan — Chapter VI. The First Interview With Smerdyakov19 min
- Book XI. Ivan — Chapter VII. The Second Visit To Smerdyakov18 min
- Book XI. Ivan — Chapter VIII. The Third And Last Interview With Smerdyakov30 min
- Book XI. Ivan — Chapter IX. The Devil. Ivan’s Nightmare37 min
- Book XI. Ivan — Chapter X. “It Was He Who Said That”11 min
- Book XII. A Judicial Error — Chapter I. The Fatal Day13 min
- Book XII. A Judicial Error — Chapter II. Dangerous Witnesses18 min
- Book XII. A Judicial Error — Chapter III. The Medical Experts And A Pound Of Nuts11 min
- Book XII. A Judicial Error — Chapter IV. Fortune Smiles On Mitya19 min
- Book XII. A Judicial Error — Chapter V. A Sudden Catastrophe19 min
- Book XII. A Judicial Error — Chapter VI. The Prosecutor’s Speech. Sketches Of Character19 min
- Book XII. A Judicial Error — Chapter VII. An Historical Survey10 min
- Book XII. A Judicial Error — Chapter VIII. A Treatise On Smerdyakov19 min
- Book XII. A Judicial Error — Chapter IX. The Galloping Troika. The End Of The Prosecutor’s Speech.21 min
- Book XII. A Judicial Error — Chapter X. The Speech For The Defense. An Argument That Cuts Both Ways8 min
- Book XII. A Judicial Error — Chapter XI. There Was No Money. There Was No Robbery13 min
- Book XII. A Judicial Error — Chapter XII. And There Was No Murder Either16 min
- Book XII. A Judicial Error — Chapter XIII. A Corrupter Of Thought16 min
- Book XII. A Judicial Error — Chapter XIV. The Peasants Stand Firm12 min
- EPILOGUE — Chapter I. Plans For Mitya’s Escape11 min
- EPILOGUE — Chapter II. For A Moment The Lie Becomes Truth15 min
- EPILOGUE — Chapter III. Ilusha’s Funeral. The Speech At The Stone19 min
- EPILOGUE — FOOTNOTES1 min
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