The Brothers Karamazov

This section covers the Prologue (“From the Author”) and Book 1 (“A Nice Little Family”), which includes the following chapters: “Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov,” “The First Son Sent Packing,” “Second Marriage, Second Children,” “The Third Son, Alyosha,” and “Elders.”

The Prologue, though titled “From the Author,” is not from Dostoevsky; it’s from the novel’s narrator, a distinct character. The narrator opens by confessing that while Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov (also called “Alyosha”) is the hero of the novel, Alexei is not a “great man.” Anticipating that his audience may hesitate to read a story whose hero is not a great man, the narrator jumps to justify the merit of the book: While Alyosha isn’t great, he is “odd,” and this oddness may be worthwhile. The narrator then—with a scattered eccentricity that will characterize many of his later asides—seems concerned that even this claim (concerning his hero’s oddness) will deter readers. He therefore insists that in Alyosha’s very oddness there lies a crucial human universality.

The narrator expands on his project by clarifying that while the book is only “one biography” (that of Alyosha), it is “two novels.” He starts by explaining the second novel, which he describes as the hero’s story in “our present” moment.