Completed only two months before the author's death and a year before the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of sexual 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. Many critics consider this novel to be Dostoevsky's crowning achievement. Through the gripping, suspenseful events of the brothers' story and using over fifty characters, male and female, Dostoevsky portrays the whole of Russian life in its social and spiritual striving. The novel particularly examines how the Christian copes with the world, the flesh, and the Devil.

For this meeting, we will read Par...