Above all, do not lie to yourself. A
man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point
where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere
around him. . . .
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Summary—From the Author
In a short introduction, the author—writing in the somewhat
comical and haphazard style employed by the narrator throughout
the novel—poses the question of why anyone should read his story, which
he describes as the “biography” of Alyosha. He concludes that the
story describes an odd man who nevertheless captures something essential
about his time. The author apologizes for the fragmentary nature
of his story, but says that he hopes readers will read it to the
end. He also apologizes for wasting his readers’ time with a superfluous
author’s note.
Summary—Chapter 1: Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov
Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov, usually called Alyosha,
is the third son of a brutish landowner named Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, who
is still famous for his dark and violent death. The narrator tells the
story of Fyodor Pavlovich’s life. As a young man, he is known as a
loutish buffoon. He owns a very small amount of land and earns a reputation
for sponging off other people. Nevertheless, he somehow manages
to marry a rich, beautiful, intelligent girl named Adelaida Ivanovna
Miusova, who convinces herself that eloping with a bold and sarcastic
man like Fyodor Pavlovich is a romantic thing to do. After they
are married, Adelaida Ivanovna realizes that she feels nothing but
contempt for Fyodor Pavlovich, and when their son, Dmitri, is three,
she runs away with a poor seminary student, leaving Fyodor Pavlovich
with the boy. Fyodor Pavlovich begins traveling around the province,
tearfully complaining about his wife’s desertion. In Adelaida Ivanovna’s
absence, however, Fyodor Pavlovich turns his house into a harem
and spends much of his time indulging in drunken orgies financed
by the fortune he has filched from Adelaida Ivanovna. When Fyodor
Pavlovich hears that Adelaida Ivanovna has died from starvation
or disease in a Petersburg garret, he runs down the street drunkenly
celebrating his freedom. There is another version of this story,
however, which says that Fyodor Pavlovich instead weeps like a child.
The narrator says both versions of the story may be true: Fyodor
Pavlovich may have simultaneously rejoiced and mourned his wife’s
death, for even wicked people like Fyodor Pavlovich are generally
more naïve and simple than one is inclined to suspect.
Summary—Chapter 2: The First Son Sent Packing
As soon as Adelaida Ivanovna flees from her marriage to
Fyodor Pavlovich, Fyodor Pavlovich forgets all about his three-year-old son.
For a year, a servant raises the neglected Dmitri. Dmitri is then passed
around among a number of his mother’s relatives, including her cousin
Pyotr Alexandrovich Miusov. These relatives lead Dmitri to believe
that he has inherited some his mother’s money and property, which
is now in the care of his father. After a wild young adulthood and
a stint in the army, Dmitri visits his father to learn the details
of his inheritance. Fyodor Pavlovich evades Dmitri’s questions and
gives him a small sum of money to quiet him. After Dmitri leaves,
his father successfully manipulates him by sending him other small
payments, which lead Dmitri to believe that he has a sizable inheritance. But
when Dmitri next visits his father, Fyodor Pavlovich tells him that
he has paid out all the money from his mother’s inheritance, and
that Dmitri might even owe a small sum to his father. Dmitri, stunned,
quickly concludes that his father is attempting to cheat him, and
he remains in the town to fight what he believes is his father’s unwillingness
to hand over the fortune that is rightfully Dmitri’s.
Summary—Chapter 3: Second Marriage, Second Children
Fyodor Pavlovich remarries soon after getting rid of four-year-old Dmitri.
He stays married for about eight years. His wife, Sofia Ivanovna,
is a sixteen-year-old orphan from another province, where Fyodor
Pavlovich has traveled on a business trip. Despite his drunken and
debauched lifestyle, Fyodor Pavlovich has handled his investments
shrewdly, and his fortune continues to grow. Fyodor Pavlovich convinces
Sofia to elope with him against the wishes of her guardian, and
Fyodor Pavlovich treats her deplorably, openly holding orgies with
other women in the house, right under her nose. As a result
of Fyodor Pavlovich’s ill treatment, Sofia becomes nervous and hysterical,
until her husband begins calling her “the shrieker.” Despite her
instability, Sofia gives birth to two sons, Ivan and Alexei, who
is nicknamed Alyosha. When Alyosha is four, Sofia dies, and the two
boys fall into the care of the same servant who briefly had charge
of Dmitri. Their mother’s former guardian, a general’s widow, then
takes them in. The widow soon dies, but leaves funds for the education
of Alyosha and Ivan. As the boys grow older, in the care of their
benefactress’s heir, Ivan becomes a brilliant student, gaining notoriety
in literary circles for an article he writes about ecclesiastical
courts. Eventually Ivan moves back to his father’s town to live
with his father, despite having been ashamed of him all his life.
This bizarre circumstance is partially arranged by Dmitri, who,
after being told about his ruined inheritance, has requested that
his brother join him and their father, hoping that Ivan might help
to mediate their dispute.
Summary—Chapter 4: The Third Son, Alyosha
Alyosha is twenty years old when Dmitri moves to their
father’s home. Alyosha has lived in the monastery in his father’s
town for about a year before his brothers’ arrival. He is religious—not
in a mystical or superstitious way, but simply out of a generous
and innate love of humankind. Alyosha even seems to love his father
and is never critical of him or unkind to him. Everyone loves Alyosha, for
despite his tendency to remain detached from others, he exudes a
kind of blissful serenity. He has been extremely popular as a student
despite his passive nature and his innocence—the only thing the
other students ever tease him about is the acute embarrassment he
feels whenever the topics of women or sex arise. After Alyosha moves
back to his father’s town, he quickly grows close to Fyodor Pavlovich,
who uncharacteristically donates a great deal of money to the monastery
after Alyosha visits his mother’s grave. Fyodor Pavlovich becomes
very sentimental when Alyosha tells him that he intends to enter
the monastery and study under the elder Zosima.
Summary—Chapter 5: Elders
Alyosha is greatly moved by the arrival of his
brothers. He quickly becomes close to Dmitri, but he feels that
Ivan’s cold intellectualism keeps him distant from others. Alyosha
senses that Ivan is struggling toward an inner goal that makes him
indifferent to the outside world. Dmitri and Ivan are as unlike
as two people can be, but Alyosha notices that Dmitri speaks of
Ivan with warmth and admiration.
