Nineteen-year-old Arkady Dolgoruky, the illegitimate son of a landowner, has difficulty establishing his personal identity amid the political and social upheavels of nineteenth-century Russia, in a new translation of a novel by the author of Crime and Punishment.

"The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the "wicked and sentimental" Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons--the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy, red-cheeked young novice Alyosha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky portrays the whole of Russian life, its social and spiritual...