The Brothers Karamazov
Written by: Fyodor Dostoevsky
Narrated by: Simon Vance
Length: 19 hrs and 12 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release Date: 01-15-09
Publisher: christianaudio.com
I’ve been thinking about reading some classic literature for some time now, and what better book to start with than The Brothers Karamazov. There’re multiple audiobook versions available, both abridged and unabridged, so you’ll have lots of choice of how to consume it. I went for the 2009 abridged edition narrated by Simon Vance. It’s almost 20 hours long which is the perfect sweetspot for me. The full version is something like 40 hours long, so…
Unlike your typical abridged audiobook, this one seems to shorten things on word and phrase level rather then cut out whole scenes or chapters. A word removed here, change of phrasing there and it all adds up with the end result being about 50% shorter than the original. It’s more of a compression than an abridgment. Sure, you’re loosing some of the feel of the original, but you’re presented with a carefully crafted piece, not some hack job. The famous The Grand Inquisitor chapter is still there in all of its glory, for example.