Crime and Punishment & Other Great Novels of Dostoevsky
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Contents
The Brothers Karamazov — Part I
Overview
The narrator sketches Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov’s character—vicious, foolish in life but shrewd with money—and outlines his first disastrous marriage to Adelaida Miusov. Their elopement devolves into conflict, financial exploitation, and her flight with a student, leaving Dmitri behind. Adelaida’s death and Fyodor’s grotesque reaction foreshadow the family’s tragic dysfunction.
Summary
The narrator introduces Alexey (Alyosha) Karamazov as the third son of Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov, hinting at Fyodor Pavlovitch’s notorious, tragic end years before. The narrator characterizes Fyodor Pavlovitch as a common Russian type: morally senseless yet materially shrewd, capable of increasing his fortune while neglecting dignity or decency.
The account turns to family history. Fyodor Pavlovitch married twice, fathering Dmitri with his first wife, Adelaida Ivanovna Miusov, and Ivan and Alexey with his second. Adelaida, an heiress from a distinguished family, eloped with Fyodor Pavlovitch in a bid for independence, mistaking his buffoonery for a bold spirit.
Disillusion set in immediately. Adelaida came to despise Fyodor Pavlovitch, while he seized her cash dowry and attempted, unsuccessfully, to take over her property. Their household dissolved into scenes and fights, with gossip claiming Adelaida often bested him. Eventually, Adelaida fled with a destitute divinity student, leaving three-year-old Dmitri with Fyodor Pavlovitch.
Freed of restraint, Fyodor Pavlovitch plunged into debauchery, publicly dramatizing his grievance as the injured husband. He planned to chase Adelaida to Petersburg but delayed in drunkenness. News arrived that she had died there in poverty, of disease or starvation.
Fyodor Pavlovitch’s response—reported as both exultant and tearful—captures his crude complexity. The narrator suggests both reactions could be true, underscoring the naivety and contradictions found even in the wicked, and setting the tone for the Karamazov family’s troubled legacy.
Who Appears
- Fyodor Pavlovitch KaramazovDebauched yet shrewd landowner; exploits his first wife’s dowry; abandoned by her; reacts grotesquely to her death.
- Adelaida Ivanovna MiusovFyodor Pavlovitch’s first wife; elopes, soon despises him, is abused financially, flees with a divinity student, dies in Petersburg.
- Dmitri (Mitya) Fyodorovitch KaramazovFirst son; left as a three-year-old in his father’s care when his mother flees.
- Alexey (Alyosha) Fyodorovitch KaramazovThird son; introduced by the narrator as the subject of the family history.
- Ivan Fyodorovitch KaramazovSecond son; mentioned as child of Fyodor Pavlovitch’s second marriage.
- Destitute divinity studentRuns away with Adelaida Ivanovna; precipitates the final break in the marriage.