Alexey Fyodorovitch Karamazov was the third son of Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov, a land owner well known in our district in his own day, and still remembered among us owing to his gloomy and tragic death, which happened thirteen years ago, and which I shall describe in its proper place.
I have this on my Kindle.
I liked Crime and Punishment (except for the end) and The Idiot more than The Brothers Karamazov, which I found too melodramatically emotional for my taste. Everyone is constantly turning scarlet with rage or deathly pale or bursting out laughing or collapsing into tears.
Absolutely this. Soap Opera in print. (I still like The Grand Inquisitor.)
I read it several times in college. Then many years later, I picked it up again only to not finish it.
If the alternative is watching Crime and Punishment with Crispin Glover as Raskolnikov? Yes, you should read Dostoevsky.
One reason for Dostoevskii being so tedious is that he was publishing in installments and no doubt ended up padding his stories a lot.
If you have a chance, watch the Soviet film version of Crime and Punishment (it’s available with English subtitles). Innokentii Smoktunovskii, the guy who plays the detective, was a very popular actor back in the day, and delivers a great performance. He was famous for playing (among other memorable roles) Hamlet, and was considered better than Olivier in the role.
There is, of course, the American film version of The Brothers Karamazov with Lee J Cobb, Claire Bloom, Yul Brynner, Richard Basehart, Albert Salmi, and William Shatner. While not a *bad *movie, I think it strays somewhat from what Dostoevskii intended.
How’s the Peter Lorre version of Crime & Punishment? Never seen it myself.
Sure you’re not thinking of Fritz Lang’s M? :dubious:
If Peter Lorre did*** C&P***, was it in German or English? 
If it’s easier, most if not all of his works are available in audiobook form, both paid and for free.
I’ve read Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov. It was years ago, but I remember I enjoyed them all.
As I recall, not one of Lorre’s or Von Sternberg’s best. Lorre clips a dude, spends rest of movie haunted by it. I don’'t even remember the ending.
There is also Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff (1931), which deals with part of The Brothers Karamazov. Slow, but with some very impressive sequences; it’s largely forgotten today.
I remember liking Crime and Punishment quite a lot. For a book that I had to read for school, it didn’t really feel like a book that I had to read for school, you know? On the other hand, The Brothers Karamazov ground me down pretty fast. I think that I might have gotten past the first 100 pages, but I wasn’t really taken with the story and chucked it aside.
Same here. Enjoyed The Idiot, and I’m reading Brothers K for the second time right now. But never could get going with C&P.
Given the discussion here, maybe I should look to see who translated the copy I was reading. 
One of my teens is reading and enjoying Crime and Punishment in school, and oddly, the teacher insisted that they use the Constance Garnett translation. I always liked Garnett’s Tolstoy, but found Dostoevsky a slog, even when I was young and had more patience for misogyny.
One should always read the Garnett translations. It puts hairs on one’s chest.
When I read (and enjoyed) Crime and Punishment, I’m pretty sure it was the David Magarshack translation (in a Penguin paperback).
This review gives high praise to a new translation by Oliver Ready. (It calls Magarshack’s “excellent” and Garnett’s “clumsy” but insists this one is better than both.)
This Reddit thread has people recommending translations by Pevear & Volokhonsky, Jessie Coulson, and David McDuff.
I came in to say this. It’s not a laugh a minute, but it really is a fascinating read about someone talking himself into a horrific act because he’s trying to prove something to himself. In our current historical moment of neo-fascists and other right-wing hate groups embracing violent aggression as a fundamental expression of their “warrior” identity and the “purification” of society, it’s particularly thought-provoking.
For a bit of a palate cleanser if you get stuck, I recommend S. J. Perelman’s short parody essay “A Farewell to Omsk”. 
Having gotten half way through it twice, I think C&P is a fundamentally different novel than many of his other works. If seems a little simpler in a way, more intellectual, less melodrama, the characters aren’t as vibrant. It’s like Dostoyevsky light to me - a lot of the same themes and philosophical underpinnings of his other works but none of the vivid storytelling or charismatic figures to bring the ideas to life. Kind of like Dream of a Rediculous Man, (I was able to get through that because it was like only 25 pages).
It’s been about 9 years since I last tried to read it, maybe I should try again and I would have a different opinion.