The Grand Inquisitor is an episode from Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s final novel The Brothers Karamazov, wherein one of the brothers relates a fantasy he has concocted for some reason of Jeebus’ Second Coming in 16th century Spain at the height of the Spanish Inquisition’s powah. After performing crowd favourite magic tricks, Jeebus is whisked away by the head of the Spanish Inquisition and talked to at length about the “true nature” of humanity.
I’m really not sure why this is considered one of the highlights in what is also considered Dosty’s best novel because this story stinks. The Grand Inquisitor tells Jeebus that people can’t handle free will, over and bloody over again, and that they need to be led to be happy - that’s why the Catholic Church is so good: because they do just that. Keep people poor and shackled to dogmatic belief and always under the boot heel of papal authority.
And that’s what Dosty’s telling us: the Catholic Church is wholly corrupt, who doesn't believe the scripture, and wants to maintain its status and power even in the face of the Messiah returned. Wow, what a bold idea - never heard anyone criticise organised religion before! Especially not the Catholics - they never get up to evil shit!
I’m also working my way through Crime and Punishment at the moment (thankfully less punishing than this short book was) and I’m noticing things about Dosty’s style: he really loves having his characters speak in extremely lengthy monologues. Even setting aside his complete inability to write realistic dialogue, the writing is so clunky with one poorly formed sentence cascading into another in a messy heap on the page.
He often fails to clearly state his point, then repeats them to tedium and beyond, the sentences are overlong - you really have to concentrate to understand what he’s trying to say and, in this instance, it’s not worth it because what he’s saying is so unremarkable.
The Grand Inquisitor also fails as a story. When you have a character tell you a dreary message over several dozen pages, it’s not exciting for the reader to read because it’s so unengaging, making the audience passive and bored observers. Especially when the ideas being presented are completely unoriginal.
It doesn’t even live up to the premise of what the Second Coming could be like. Jeebus is instantly sidelined and forced, like the reader, to endure a dull man’s dull speech instead. The more I read of Dosty’s work, the less impressed I become and, if this is any indication, makes it more likely that I will never attempt The Brothers K.
Also included in this Penguin Great Ideas edition are selections from House of the Dead, Dosty’s novel of his time in a Siberian prison (for reading dissident literature - 4 years for that!). House of the Dead is the one book of his I’ve read so far that is actually coherent and even enjoyable to read at times. It’s his most accessible book that I’ve come across and, if you’re going to read one of his books, I’d say that one is definitely the one to start with over his more famous books like Notes from Underground or this tripe.
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