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Customer Review: Five stars PLUS
"The Grand Inquisitor" is a story embeded within THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV. However, the story is "self-contained." Nothing is lost by reading it as a complete short story. In my opinion, "The Grand Inquisitor" is the greatest single story ever written. It's an interesting look at humanity, spirituality, and the church. If you are only going to read one more thing before you die, you must read "The Grand Inquisitor."
*This particular edition, however, seems to have some typos that were not caught by the proof-reader, but they're nothing very serious.
Customer Review: The Grand Inquisitor reveals much about Human nature
The Grand Inquisitor argues that the coming of the Messiah during the Spanish Inquisition is a hindrance to the Catholic Church and to humanity as a whole. He explains, ?nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom.? The returning of the Messiah can only disrupt what the Catholic Church has done to rid humanity of this cursed freedom that God has bestowed upon humans. The Inquisitor goes on to list three temptations that the Catholic Church has remedied. ?The first temptation: the problem of bread.? The Inquisitor feels that it is better for the Church to give human society the gift of human bread -- declaring falsely that it is heavenly bread -- than it is for humans to take the actual heavenly bread. ?And we alone shall feed them in Thy name, declaring falsely that it is in Thy name. Oh, never never can they feed themselves without us.? ?The second temptation: the problem of conscience.? The Inquisitor says, ?Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering.? He proposes that the Church has successfully lifted this freedom and hence the suffering. ?The third temptation: the problem of unity? The Inquisitor goes on to say, ?But with us all will be happy and will no more rebel nor destroy one another as under Thy freedom.? The Church provides unity for the people. All of these temptations have been lifted from the human conscience by the church. ?We have corrected thy work and have founded it upon miracle, mystery and authority.? Thus, the Messiah has no duty coming back to this world and will be destroyed, as a heretic would be. This book gives many insights to human nature. It does not answer any questions, it simply asks the right questions. All who have at one time questioned human nature should read this novella.
Customer Review: Yes, Read the whole thing!
I don't see how you can isolate "The Grand Inquisitor" chapter from the novel in which it is situated, The Brothers Karamazov. I think that knowing who is telling the story, who he is telling the story too, what the story means to each of these people, and what the consequences of what the Grand Inquisitor have to say, are ALL important; important because it is a great novel and important in understanding the grand inquisitor!!!!!!! My suggestion: Buy The Brothers Karamazov instead of this. It's excellent.
Customer Review: The Grand Inquisitor is a Russian Russian story
The 'Grand Inquisitor ' is the central chapter of Dostoevsky's great work , "The Brothers Karamazov". In it the brother of intellect Ivan tells a story to the saintly Karamazov brother, Alyosha. He tells of how Jesus came once to Spain in the time of the Inquistion .He tells how Jesus performed a series of miracles which caused the people to cry out for him. He tells how the 'Grand Inquisitor ' whose exposition fills a good share of the text, tells why Christ must be banished and the Grand Inquisitor must continue to rule. The essence of his message is that the people cannot endure freedom. They are not really able to bear responsibility for themselves and must be fed, spiritually protected by an authoritarian power, the Grand Inquisitor and the Church.
This assumption that the people cannot bear their own freedom seems to me very Russian. It is I think quite difficult for an American who supposes that freedom is natural and most desirable, to understand this.
Dostoevsky as usual in powerful, dramatic, psychologically penetrating prose creates in this work one of World Literature's great chapters.
A number of readers have rightly commented that it is preferable to read this chapter in the context of the whole novel. But it too can be read and understood on its own terms.
One more point which comes to mind is that here the Church is made to be the instrument of interfering with true freedom.
Customer Review: good...but lacking. an incomplete edition.
While this story is truly an essential writing of Dostoevsky, it lacks the appropriate context to be read as sold in this copy. If you are interested in reading "The Grand Inquisitor" without reading the rest of The Brothers Karamazov, I would recommend the Guignon edition, sold for only a little more. This work includes the two chapters preceeding "The Grand Inquisitor" as well as what Dostoevsky intended as the refutation for this tale, "The Russian Monk," which follows this legend. Dostoevsky did not intend for this to be separated from the book as a whole, but I think it could be legitimately done when read with a little more context than is present in this copy. Additionally, this alternate edition includes a very complete introduction by Charles Guignon, which is much more informative than the brief one by Anne Fremantle provided in this copy.
It is important to remember that "The Grand Inquistor" was not Dostoevsky's final answer in The Brothers Karamazov. Reading this edition alone provides a flawed view of both Dostoevsky's writing and philosophy and The Brothers Karamazov.
I would recommend reading the book as a whole instead [and I particularly recommend the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation for that: it is much more accurate to the original Russian]. Or at a minimum, reading the other edition of this book. Either way, you will get a more complete glimpse to the genius of Dostoevsky, which this fails to provide.
The Grand Inquisitor is truly an essential read, but not in this presentation of it.
Product Description
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was a Russian novelist and writer of fiction whose works, including Crime and Punishment (1866) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880), have had a profound and lasting effect on intellectual thought and world literature. His literary output explores human psychology in the troubled political, social and spiritual context of 19th-century Russian society. Considered by many as a founder or precursor of 20th century existentialism, his Notes from Underground (1864), written in the embittered voice of the anonymous "underground man", was named by Walter Kaufmann as the "best overture for existentialism ever written. " His characters fall into a few distinct categories: humble and self-effacing Christians, self-destructive nihilists, and rebellious intellectuals; also, his characters are driven by ideas rather than by ordinary biological or social imperatives. His other works include: Poor Folk (1846), The Village of Stepanchikovo (1859), The Insulted and Humiliated (1861), The House of the Dead (1862), The Gambler (1867), The Idiot (1869), The Possessed (1872), The Raw Youth (1875) and A Writer's Diary (1873).
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