The Brothers Karamazov (A BookHacker Summary)

Let’s be honest: sometimes you're asked to read an “important” book that you don't want or have time to read. Sometimes you try and it’s just so boring and impenetrable that you can’t get through it. And then, even worse, sometimes you’re asked to take a test or write a paper about it. If that sounds familiar, then Bookhacker was designed for you.

Bookhacker summaries strip away all the subtlety and stuffiness of literature’s classic works (100% “thou”-free guaranteed) and get right to the point. Taking away all the guess work, Bookhacker presents the book's warm gooey center in a concise, logical and entertaining way. Just because literary classics can be dry and boring doesn't mean understanding them has to be.

In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s, The Brothers Karamazov, BookHacker takes you to a small 19th century Russian town where the Karamazov brothers grew up and their father Fyodor still lives. We watch as the eldest son, Dmitri, and their father fight over the same woman, their father is murdered, Dmitri is accused and convicted, and everyone pretty much leads a typically miserable life (as Russian literature goes). BookHacker sorts through all the philosophical questions and themes Dostoevsky tackles in this, his last published work.

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BOOKHACKER BREAKDOWN:

1. Executive Summary - This is the Who, What, Where, When, Why, How in 60 seconds or less.

2. Plot - We do the reading so you don’t have to. The essential plot points of the story.

3. Scenes - Every great story has a number of number of important moments that are crucial (read: "testable") to its understanding. These are those.

4. Characters - If you can’t figure out what this section is about, you should probably be coloring.

5. Analysis - Themes, symbolism, and all manner of insufferable literary nonsense.

6. Quotes - All the intimacy of the book with none of the commitment.

7. Popular Culture - Books have a way of finding their place in the cultural consciousness. You might want to know about that.

8. Extras - Media, links and leftovers.