Dostoevsky’s last two big novels are both murder stories, and they work in opposite directions. Crime and Punishment (1866) begins with the crime and spends 200,000 words inside one man’s justification of it. The Brothers Karamazov (1880) begins with a family, spends half the book getting to the murder, and then puts the killing on trial in a courtroom.
Raskolnikov is alone; the Karamazovs are three brothers and a father, which lets Dostoevsky stage arguments rather than monologues. The Grand Inquisitor chapter — a story told inside a conversation — has no equivalent in the earlier book, and it is the reason many readers rate Karamazov higher.
Crime and Punishment is the easier entry: one plot, one consciousness, and a police investigator who functions as a mirror. Karamazov is about 349,000 words against 204,000 and asks more of you, but it is the fuller picture of what Dostoevsky thought a novel could carry.
Both appeared in serial parts, and the form shows: each instalment ends with a hook, and the novels carry the marks of a writer paid by the sheet and often in debt. Crime and Punishment was written against a deadline in one year; Karamazov was spread across two. The courtroom in Karamazov runs for nearly a hundred pages; in Crime and Punishment there is no trial at all, only an investigator who keeps visiting.
Side by side
Both editions are on this site, so the word counts and reading times are the numbers of the files you download. Screen versions are counted from the verified filmographies on the site; “none listed” means no version has been verified there yet, not that none exists.
| Crime and Punishment | The Brothers Karamazov | |
|---|---|---|
| Published | 1866 | 1880 |
| Author | Fyodor Dostoevsky | Fyodor Dostoevsky |
| Words here | 204,000 | 349,000 |
| Reading time | 11 h | 19 h |
| Screen versions | none listed | none listed |
| Free edition | Crime and Punishment | The Brothers Karamazov |
How to choose
- Start with Crime and Punishment if you want tension and a single point of view.
- Start with The Brothers Karamazov if you want the philosophical set pieces and a trial.
- Both are complete editions here, with reading times at 300 words a minute.
Questions readers ask
Which was written later?
The Brothers Karamazov, serialised 1879–1880; Crime and Punishment appeared in 1866.
Do I need to read one before the other?
No. They share a city and a preoccupation with guilt, not a plot or a character.
Which is longer?
The Brothers Karamazov, at roughly 349,000 words against 204,000.
Both novels are in the complete catalogue. More head-to-head comparisons are in the comparison index, and word counts for everything are in the word-count table.