The Brothers Karamazov

Dostoyevsky's passionate concern for people and his intense desire to grasp the meaning of life led him to explore the secret depths of humanity's struggles and sins. No action or thought was ever too corrupt or too inhuman for his understanding. The Brothers Karamazov was his last and greatest work. This extraordinary novel tells the dramatic story of four brothers-Dmitri, pleasure-seeking, impatient, unruly...Ivan, brilliant and morose ...Alyosha, gentle, loving, honest...and the illegitimate Smerdyakov, sly, silent, cruel. Driven by intense passion, they become involved in the brutal murder of their own father, one of the most loathsome characters in all literature. (back cover)