Classics of Russian Literature | The Generation of the Karamazovs (Lecture 14)

Lecture 14: Throughout the 1870s, Dostoevsky became ever more deeply obsessed with what the Russians called “the eternal questions”: the relationship between the eternal human desire for freedom and the desire for love; the wellsprings of human attachment and, equally, human hate; the problem of passing on humankind’s greatest achievements from one generation to another. Underlying all these issues lay the question of God’s existence and his order in the universe. In the process of wrestling with these problems, Dostoevsky created the Karamazov family, whose lives, passions, and lusts vividly grasped the creative imagination not only of the 19th century but of many centuries to come. Dmitrii Karamazov, the sensualist among the brothers, puts it very succinctly: “In this world there is nothing higher than the ideal of the Madonna, and nothing lower than the Karamazov conscience.” Ivan Karamazov, the intellectual, puts forward the greatest doubts that puzzle the Christian believer.

Suggested Reading:
Fedor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
Robert L. Jackson, ed., A New Word on the Brothers Karamazov.