No term of comparison is too great for Dostoyevsky's work: the tragedy of Karamazov is not inferior to the events of Orestes, to Homer's epic, to the works of Goethe. On the contrary, these works are all simpler, flatter, less rich in knowledge. A century and a half after its publication, the literary power of The Brothers Karamazov has not waned. Even today, by witnessing modern literature's most famous parricide and following his trial, we are compelled to descend into the most uncomfortable depths of the human soul, to question the worst instincts of the individual and of society, on a journey where reality and nightmare do not always have well-defined borders, where tragedy mixes with farce, and where despair is condemned to nurture a flame of hope, however tenuous.
