Is The Brothers Karamazov Anti-Catholic?

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The difficulty you have with Dostoevsky I have with George Eliot. Many years ago I read Adam Bede and enjoyed it immensely. That prompted me to try The Mill on the Floss. I don’t remember whether I actually struggled through to the end of Chapter 1, or not quite that far. The Brothers K, on the other hand, I have read twice all the way through, and bits of it more often than that. One man’s meat …
 
Thanks for the tips! My mother recently read The Mill on the Floss and has been pestering me to read it, confident that I’d “enjoy” it, and not just for the sake of reading it. Just another perspective.

And yours is another strong recommendation for Brother K. Readability, if the book works for you, is very important as it means that once you start you keep going, instead of weeks or months of “slog”.

So many great books, so little time… 😦
 
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I just started reading ‘Middlemarch’ for the first time. It’s pretty good; surprisingly snarky.
 
I shall shamelessly admit I’ve never read George Elliot… Perhaps I should give her a try.
I’d say Brother K is closest to Leo Tolstoy’s full length novels (War and Peace, etc) or Sigrid Undset.
I totally agree, though, with not liking a book everyone seems to think you should love… I’ve been trying valiantly to read Kristin Lavransdattar, which every Catholic I’ve ever heard speak about has loved. I hate it with a frightening passion. Kristin is utterly stupid, and I can’t get past how cruel she was to Simon and her father. So there!
Brothers K, however, is splendid! (I don’t have a good explanation for my preferences…)
 
Brothers K is one of my favorite Dostoevsky novels (though The Idiot is a close second!).
 
One of my favorite bits of wisdom buried in Brothers Karamazov is below about reforms. It is very relevant to the church today. It is from page 585 in my copy…

Reforms, when the ground has not been prepared for them, especially if they are institutions copied from abroad, do nothing but mischief!
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Venerable (Someday – soonish, God willing – Saint) Fulton Sheen often quoted and referenced the novel on “Life is Worth Living” as well.
 
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