What’s the best audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov?

“Which English audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov should I listen to?”

So, you like audiobooks, or you think you might, and you’re not sure what your choices are, or which audiobook contains which translation.

I can’t tell you whose voice you’ll enjoy spending 30 hours with; that’ll depend on your personal preference. You’ll probably want to listen for yourself before deciding.

All the readers of unabridged versions of The Brothers Karamazov happen to be male, except in the case of the collaborative Librivox recording, which includes female volunteers as well as male volunteers.

For the solo recordings, I’ve marked which narrators sounded British and which sounded American when I listened to the audio samples.

If you want a quick-and-dirty recommendation, jump down to the audible.com rankings at the bottom of the page and choose one of their top sellers.

“What if I want to read *and* listen to the book?”

You can do that manually if you have the same translation, which is part of why it helps to know which audiobook uses which translation.

If you use Kindle ebooks, you can take advantage of Amazon’s Whispersync feature, which allows you to easily keep your place in corresponding Kindle and Audible books. Below, I’ve noted which books have this feature, but here are the matching-est of the matching pairs:

» AmazonClassics Garnett Kindle edition of The Brothers Karamazov
» AmazonClassics Garnett Audible edition of The Brothers Karamazov

» Penguin McDuff Kindle edition of The Brothers Karamazov
» Penguin McDuff Audible edition of The Brothers Karamazov

“Can I get a free audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov?”

Yes, there are free audiobooks at Librivox, produced by volunteers from public domain translations. There are three different versions: one is collaborative (read aloud by different contributors in charge of producing different chapters) and two are solo (read entirely by a single contributor). All three are based on the Constance Garnett translation (see below).

The Brothers Karamazov: Translation History

There have been twelve translations of The Brothers Karamazov so far. I found complete audio versions of 3 of them (shown in bold below).

  1. 1912 – Constance Garnett
  2. 1949 – Constance Garnett revised by Alexandra Kropotkin (ABRIDGED)
  3. 1958 – David Magarshack
  4. 1958 – Constance Garnett revised by Manuel Komroff
  5. 1970 – Andrew R. MacAndrew
  6. 1976 – Constance Garnett revised by Ralph Matlaw
  7. 1981 – Julius Katzer
  8. 1990 – Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
  9. 1993 – David McDuff
  10. 1994 – Ignat Avsey
  11. 2011 – Constance Garnett revised by Susan McReynolds Oddo
  12. 2023 – Michael R. Katz

If you want to learn about all the translations, please visit What’s the best translation of The Brothers Karamazov?

Are any of the audiobooks abridged? Why are the running times different?

Among the unabridged versions, the running times are different not because some text is missing but because the narrators naturally speak at different speeds. Over the course of a book, small differences add up.

I put the abridged versions, dramatizations, and retellings in the Other Info and Audio Resources section at the bottom of the page.

Do they still sell audiobooks on CD?

Most people seem to have switched to digital files, either by paying for individual books or (increasingly) for a subscription service. It’s more convenient for the publisher, who avoids the manufacturing, storage, and shipping costs for physical materials (though they still need the appropriate IT infrastructure); it’s also more convenient for most users, who have devices that can store and play hundreds of files on a seemingly magical handheld device.

However, I found one CD audiobook still selling on Amazon. It was published by Naxos, translated by Constance Garnett, and read by Constantine Gregory (British male), 37h 4m.
The Brothers Karamazov on audio CD at Amazon

There are some CDs and even cassettes on second-hand site Abebooks.
Search for Brothers Karamazov audiobooks at Abebooks

1912 · Constance Garnett · The Brothers Karamazov

I found 8 audiobook versions of the Garnett translation of The Brothers Karamazov. (The Garnett translation is in the public domain, so anyone can make a recording without paying a licensing fee to the publisher.)

Get the Naxos Garnett audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov

Narrated by Constantine Gregory (British male).
Available as a digital download with Whispersync. Unabridged. Running time 37h 4m.
Free sample available at the link.

Buy from Amazon

Get the Blackstone Garnett audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov

Narrated by Frederick Davidson (British male).
Available as a digital download with Whispersync. Unabridged. Running time 34h 52m.
Free sample available at the link.

Buy from Amazon

Get the AmazonClassics / Brilliance Garnett audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov

Narrated by James Anderson Foster (American male).
Available as a digital download with Whispersync. Unabridged. Running time 34h 18m.
Free sample available at the link.

Buy from Amazon

Get the A.R.N. Publications Garnett audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov

Narrated by Alastair Cameron (British male).
Available as a digital download. Unabridged. Running time 34h 24m.
Free sample available at the link.

Buy from Amazon

Get the Jimcin Recording Garnett audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov

Narrated by Walter Covell (British male).
Available as a digital download. Unabridged. Running time 37h 1m.
Free sample available at the link.

Buy from Amazon

Get the Librivox Garnett audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov

Librivox Version 1, read by Librivox volunteers taking charge of different chapters. Available for download free!

Narrated by multiple Librivox volunteers.
Available as a digital download. Unabridged. Running time 37h 55m.
Entire audiobook available at the link.

Download free from Librivox

Get the Librivox Garnett audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov

Librivox Version 2, read by a solo contributor. Available for download free!

Narrated by Tony Addison (British male).
Available as a digital download. Unabridged. Running time 46h 24m.
Entire audiobook available at the link.

Download free from Librivox

Get the Librivox Garnett audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov

Librivox Version 2, read by a solo contributor. Available for download free!

Narrated by Bruce Pirie (American male).
Available as a digital download. Unabridged. Running time 39h 37m.
Entire audiobook available at the link.

Download free from Librivox

1958 · David Magarshack · The Brothers Karamazov

The Penguin Magarshack translation of The Brothers Karamazov is out of print in book form. Current Penguin editions use David McDuff’s translation (see below).

Get the RNIB Magarshack audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov

Narrated by Gabriel Woolf (British male).
Available as a digital download. Unabridged. Running time 37h 50m.
Free sample available at the link.

Buy from Amazon

1993 · David McDuff · The Brothers Karamazov

The McDuff translation of The Brothers Karamazov is the translation currently published by Penguin.

Get the Penguin McDuff audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov

Narrated by Luke Thompson (British male).
Available as a digital download with Whispersync. Unabridged. Running time 43h 6m.
Free sample available at the link.

Buy from Amazon

Other Info and Audio Resources

Did you know there’s an illustrated children’s version of this classic? There is, and there’s an audiobook version of it, too! There are also a handful of abridged versions and a couple of collections of multiple works by Dostoevsky. See below.

Get the Montgomery Providence Publishing audiobook of Fyodor Dostoyevsky Collection: The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and Notes from the Underground

Unabridged.

Narrated by Michael A. Harding (American male).
Available as a digital download. Unabridged. Running time 96h 12m.
Free sample available at the link.

Buy from Amazon

Get the Combray Media audiobook of Fyodor Dostoyevsky Collection: The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, and The Idiot

Unabridged.

Narrated by Kevin Theis (American male).
Available as a digital download. Unabridged. Running time 90h 32m.
Free sample available at the link.

Buy from Amazon

Get the L.A. Theatre Works audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov

Dramatization with the voices of John de Lancie, Sharron Gless, Arye Gross, Harry Hamlin, Kaitlin Hopkins, Joseph Mascolo, and Tom Virtue.

Narrated by the people listed above.
Available as a digital download. Abridged. Running time 2h 15m.
Free sample available at the link.

Buy from Amazon

Get the L.A. Theatre Works audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov and The Idiot

Dramatizations with the voices of Edward Asner, Arye Gross, John Kapelos, John Rubenstein, Sharon Gless, Harry Hamlin, John de Lancie, and Douglas Weston.

Narrated by the people listed above.
Available as a digital download. Abridged. Running time 3h 59m.
Free sample available at the link.

Buy from Amazon

Get the BBC audiobook of The Fyodor Dostoevsky BBC Radio Drama Collection: Including Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Devils & The Brothers Karamazov

Dramatizations with the voices of Roy Marsden, Alex Jennings, Roger Allam, Paul Rhys, Nicholas Boulton, Paul Hilton, David Suchet, Barnaby Kay, and Lia Williams.

Narrated by the people listed above.
Available as a digital download. Abridged. Running time 17h 28m.
Free sample available at the link.

Buy from Amazon

Get the christianaudio.com audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov

Abridged.

Narrated by Simon Vance (British male).
Available as a digital download. Abridged. Running time 19h 8m.
Free sample available at the link.

Buy from Amazon

Get the Audio Literature audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov

Abridged version based on the Pevear and Volokhonksy translation. I double-checked by looking up the wording.

Narrated by Debra Winger (American female).
Available as a digital download. Abridged. Running time 6h 2m.
Free sample available at the link.

Buy from Amazon

Get the Naxos audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov

Abridged.

Narrated by Tim Pigott-Smith (British male).
Available as a digital download. Abridged. Running time 10h 33m.
Free sample available at the link.

Buy from Amazon

Get the Real Reads audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov

Children's retelling by Tony Evans.

Narrated by Hattie Briggs (British female).
Available as a digital download. Abridged. Running time 37m.
Free sample available at the link.

Buy from Amazon

Get the Flâneur Media audiobook of Summary and analysis of The Brothers Karamazov

Summary and analysis by Ryan Mitchell.

Narrated by Kevin Theis (American male).
Available as a digital download. Running time 1h 10m.
Free sample available at the link.

Buy from Amazon

Conclusion

To choose an audiobook that suits you, you may first need to consider cost and translation, then consider whose voice suits you. Different people enjoy voices differently, so even ignoring the price and translation factors, I don’t think there can be any “best” audiobook.

Still, you can ask which is the most popular…

Audible.com rankings

Top 2 by number of Audible.com user ratings (as of Feb 2023):

  1. Naxos Garnett translation read by Constantine Gregory (over 5500 since 2012)
  2. Blackstone Garnett translation read by Frederick Davidson (over 1300 since 2000)

The rest have fewer than 500.

Top 3 Audible.com “bestsellers” (as of Feb 2023):

  1. Naxos Garnett translation read by Constantine Gregory
  2. Penguin McDuff translation read by Luke Thompson
  3. Audio Literature ABRIDGED version of the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation read by Debra Winger

1 thought on “What’s the best audiobook of The Brothers Karamazov?”

  1. I have the Penguin Classics one and it’s great. It just suffers from the same issues that all Penguin Classics audiobooks have. It’s slower than the rest, I always speed mine up a lot but it might be an issue for some people. It’s less relevant on this release but worth knowing. However, it sounds beautiful and is usually for understanding the book.

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