A drama of parricide and intense family rivalry, The Brothers Karamazov, is Dostoyevsky's acknowledged masterpiece.

It tells the story of the murder of a depraved landowner, Fyodor Karamazov, and the ensuing investigation and trial, concentrating on the parts played by Karamazov's three sons, Mitya, Ivan and Alyosha. Ivan is a revolutionary intellectual, while the young novice Alyosha is, according to Dostoyevsky, the novel's 'hero'. It is Mitya's passion for two women that contributes to disaster, and it is he who inwardly accepts the guilt of his father's murderer.

In unfolding the fates of the Karamazovs Dostoyevsky creates a tragedy of Shakespearian force and vividness, a story that embodies the disintegration of a whole society, Russia in the 1870s. The Brothers Karamazou is the culmination of his work, enduring in its vitality, masterly inventiveness and vision.