# Book 9 Chapter 2 - The Alarm, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Librivox Audiobook

An episode of [Brothers Karamazov, The by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821 - 1881)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1795736404), 11 Sep 2026, 19 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75073531/brotherskaramazov_55_dostoyevsky_64kb.mp3

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## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky Translated by Constance Garnet
[0:29] Speaker 1: book nine chapter two the alarm our police captain mikhail
[0:35] Speaker 1: makarovitch makarov a retired lieutenant-colonel was a widower and an
[0:41] Speaker 1: excellent man he had only come to us three years
[0:45] Speaker 1: previously but had won general esteem chiefly because he knew
[0:49] Speaker 1: how to keep society together he was never without visitors
[0:54] Speaker 1: and could not have got on without them someone or
[0:57] Speaker 1: other was always dining with him He never sat down
[1:00] Speaker 1: to table without guests. He gave regular dinners, too, on
[1:04] Speaker 1: all sorts of occasions, sometimes most surprising ones. Though the
[1:09] Speaker 1: fare was not recherché, it was abundant. The fish pies
[1:14] Speaker 1: were excellent, and the wine made up in quantity for
[1:17] Speaker 1: what it lacked in quality. The first room his guests
[1:22] Speaker 1: entered was a well-fitted billiard room, with pictures of English
[1:25] Speaker 1: racehorses in black frames on the walls. an essential decoration,
[1:30] Speaker 1: as we all know, for a bachelor's billiard room. There
[1:33] Speaker 1: was card-playing every evening at his house, if only at
[1:36] Speaker 1: one table, but at frequent intervals all the society of
[1:40] Speaker 1: our town, with their mammas and young ladies, assembled at
[1:43] Speaker 1: his house to dance. Mikhail Makarovitch was a widower, he
[1:48] Speaker 1: did not live alone. His widowed daughter lived with him,
[1:52] Speaker 1: with her two unmarried daughters, grown-up girls who had finished
[1:55] Speaker 1: their education. They were of agreeable appearance and lively character,
[2:01] Speaker 1: and though everyone knew they would have no dowry, they
[2:03] Speaker 1: attracted all the young men of fashion to their grandfather's house.
[2:08] Speaker 1: Mikhail Makarovitch was by no means very efficient in his work,
[2:13] Speaker 1: though he performed his duties no worse than many others.
[2:16] Speaker 1: To speak plainly, he was a man of rather narrow education.
[2:20] Speaker 1: His understanding of the limits of his administrative power could
[2:23] Speaker 1: not always be relied upon. It was not so much
[2:27] Speaker 1: that he failed to grasp certain reforms enacted during the
[2:30] Speaker 1: present reign, as that he made conspicuous blunders in his
[2:34] Speaker 1: interpretation of them. This was not from any special lack
[2:38] Speaker 1: of intelligence, but from carelessness, for he was always in
[2:42] Speaker 1: too great a hurry to go into the subject. I
[2:46] Speaker 1: have the heart of a soldier rather than of a civilian,
[2:49] Speaker 1: he used to say of himself. He had not even
[2:52] Speaker 1: formed a definite idea of the fundamental principles of the
[2:55] Speaker 1: reforms connected with the emancipation of the serfs, and only
[2:59] Speaker 1: picked it up, so to speak, from year to year,
[3:02] Speaker 1: involuntarily increasing his knowledge by practice. And yet he was
[3:07] Speaker 1: himself a landowner. Piotr Ilić knew for certain that he
[3:12] Speaker 1: would meet some of Mikhail Makarovitch's visitors there that evening,
[3:15] Speaker 1: but he didn't know which. As it happened, at that
[3:19] Speaker 1: moment the prosecutor and Warwinski, our district doctor, a young
[3:23] Speaker 1: man who had only just come to us from Petersburg
[3:26] Speaker 1: after taking a brilliant degree at the Academy of Medicine,
[3:30] Speaker 1: were playing whist at the police captains. Ippolit Kirilovic, the prosecutor,
[3:36] Speaker 1: he was really the deputy prosecutor, but we always called
[3:39] Speaker 1: him the prosecutor, was rather a peculiar man of about
[3:43] Speaker 1: five and thirty, inclined to be consumptive. and married to
[3:47] Speaker 1: a fat and childless woman. He was vain and irritable,
[3:52] Speaker 1: though he had a good intellect, and even a kind heart.
[3:56] Speaker 1: It seemed that all that was wrong with him was
[3:57] Speaker 1: that he had a better opinion of himself than his
[4:00] Speaker 1: ability warranted, and that made him seem constantly uneasy. He had, moreover,
[4:06] Speaker 1: certain higher, even artistic, leanings towards psychology, for instance a
[4:12] Speaker 1: special study of the human heart, a special knowledge of
[4:15] Speaker 1: the criminal and his crime. He cherished a grievance on
[4:20] Speaker 1: this ground, considering that he had been passed over in
[4:22] Speaker 1: the service, and being firmly persuaded that in higher spheres
[4:26] Speaker 1: he had not been properly appreciated, and had enemies. In
[4:31] Speaker 1: gloomy moments he even threatened to give up his post
[4:35] Speaker 1: and practice as a barrister in criminal cases. The unexpected
[4:40] Speaker 1: Karamazov case agitated him profoundly. It was a case that
[4:45] Speaker 1: might well be talked about all over Russia. But I
[4:49] Speaker 1: am anticipating. Nikolai Parfenovich Nelyudov, the young investigating lawyer, who
[4:56] Speaker 1: had only come from Petersburg two months before, was sitting
[4:59] Speaker 1: in the next room with the young ladies. People talked
[5:02] Speaker 1: about it afterwards and wondered that all the gentlemen should,
[5:05] Speaker 1: as so intentionally, on the evening of the crime, have
[5:08] Speaker 1: been gathered together at the house of the executive authority.
[5:13] Speaker 1: yet it was perfectly simple and happened quite naturally. Ippolit
[5:17] Speaker 1: Kirilovitch's wife had had toothache for the last two days,
[5:21] Speaker 1: and he was obliged to go out to escape from
[5:24] Speaker 1: her groans. The doctor, from the very nature of his being,
[5:28] Speaker 1: could not spend an evening except at cards. Nikolai Parfenovitch
[5:33] Speaker 1: Nalyudov had been intending for three days past to drop
[5:37] Speaker 1: in that evening at Mikhail Makarovitch's, so to speak casually—
[5:41] Speaker 1: so as slyly to startle the eldest granddaughter, Olga Mikhailovna,
[5:46] Speaker 1: by showing that he knew her secret, that he knew
[5:49] Speaker 1: it was her birthday, and that she was trying to
[5:52] Speaker 1: conceal it on purpose, so as not to be obliged
[5:55] Speaker 1: to give a dance. He anticipated a great deal of merriment,
[5:59] Speaker 1: many playful jests about her age, and her being afraid
[6:03] Speaker 1: to reveal it, about his knowing her secret, and telling everybody,
[6:07] Speaker 1: and so on. The charming young man was a great
[6:11] Speaker 1: adept at such teasing. The ladies had christened him the
[6:14] Speaker 1: Naughty Man, and he seemed to be delighted at the name.
[6:19] Speaker 1: He was extremely well bred, however, of good family, education,
[6:23] Speaker 1: and feelings, and though leading a life of pleasure, his
[6:27] Speaker 1: sallies were always innocent and in good taste. He was
[6:30] Speaker 1: short and delicate-looking. On his white, slender little fingers he
[6:35] Speaker 1: always wore a number of big, glittering rings. When he
[6:39] Speaker 1: was engaged in his official duties, he always became extraordinarily grave,
[6:44] Speaker 1: as though realising his position and the sanctity of the
[6:47] Speaker 1: obligations laid upon him. He had a special gift for
[6:51] Speaker 1: mystifying murderers and other criminals of the peasant class during interrogation,
[6:57] Speaker 1: and if he did not win their respect, he certainly
[7:00] Speaker 1: succeeded in arousing their wonder. Piotr Ilyich was simply dumbfounded
[7:06] Speaker 1: when he went into the police captain's, He saw instantly
[7:10] Speaker 1: that everyone knew. They had positively thrown down their cards,
[7:15] Speaker 1: always standing up and talking. Even Nikolai Parfenovich had left
[7:19] Speaker 1: the young ladies and run in, looking strenuous and ready
[7:23] Speaker 1: for action. Piotr Ilyich was met with the astounding news
[7:28] Speaker 1: that old Fyodor Pavlovich really had been murdered that evening
[7:31] Speaker 1: in his own house, murdered and robbed. The news had
[7:35] Speaker 1: only just reached them in the following manner. Marfa Ignatyevna,
[7:40] Speaker 1: the wife of old Grigory, who had been knocked senseless
[7:43] Speaker 1: near the fence, was sleeping soundly in her bed, and
[7:47] Speaker 1: might well have slept till morning after the draft she
[7:49] Speaker 1: had taken. But all of a sudden she waked up,
[7:53] Speaker 1: no doubt roused by a fearful epileptic scream from Smerdyakov,
[7:58] Speaker 1: who was lying in the next room unconscious. That scream
[8:02] Speaker 1: always preceded his fits, and always terrified and upset Marfa Ignatyevna.
[8:08] Speaker 1: She could never get accustomed to it. She jumped up
[8:11] Speaker 1: and ran half-awake to Smirdyakov's room. But it was dark there,
[8:16] Speaker 1: and she could only hear the invalid beginning to gasp
[8:19] Speaker 1: and struggle. Then Marfa Ignatyevna herself screamed out and was
[8:24] Speaker 1: going to call her husband, but suddenly realized that when
[8:28] Speaker 1: she had got up he was not beside her in bed.
[8:31] Speaker 1: She ran back to the bedstead and began groping with
[8:34] Speaker 1: her hands, but the bed was really empty. And he
[8:38] Speaker 1: must have gone out. Where? She ran to the steps
[8:42] Speaker 1: and timidly called him. She got no answer, of course,
[8:46] Speaker 1: but she caught the sound of groans far away in
[8:48] Speaker 1: the garden, in the darkness. She listened. The groans were repeated,
[8:54] Speaker 1: and it was evident they came from the garden. Good Lord!
[8:58] Speaker 1: Just as it was with Lisaveta Smerdjastja, she thought distractedly.
[9:03] Speaker 1: She went timidly down the steps and saw that the
[9:06] Speaker 1: gate into the garden was open.' He must be out there,
[9:09] Speaker 1: poor dear,' she thought. She went up to the gate,
[9:13] Speaker 1: and all at once she distinctly heard Grigori calling her
[9:16] Speaker 1: by name.' Marfa! Marfa!' in a weak, moaning, dreadful voice.' Lord,
[9:24] Speaker 1: preserve us from harm!' Marfa Ignatievna murmured, and ran towards
[9:29] Speaker 1: the voice, and that was how she found Grigori. but
[9:33] Speaker 1: she found him not by the fence where he had
[9:35] Speaker 1: been knocked down, but about twenty paces off. It appeared
[9:40] Speaker 1: later that he had crawled away on coming to himself,
[9:43] Speaker 1: and probably had been a long time getting so far,
[9:46] Speaker 1: losing consciousness several times. She noticed at once that he
[9:51] Speaker 1: was covered with blood, and screamed at the top of
[9:54] Speaker 1: her voice. Grigori was muttering incoherently.' He has murdered! His
[10:02] Speaker 1: father murdered! Why scream, silly? Run! Fetch someone!' But Marfa
[10:09] Speaker 1: continued screaming, and seeing that her master's window was open,
[10:13] Speaker 1: and that there was a candle alight in the window,
[10:16] Speaker 1: she ran there and began calling Fyodor Pavlovich. but peeping
[10:20] Speaker 1: in at the window, she saw a fearful sight. Her
[10:24] Speaker 1: master was lying on his back, motionless on the floor.
[10:28] Speaker 1: His light-coloured dressing-gown and white shirt were soaked with blood.
[10:33] Speaker 1: The candle on the table brightly lighted up the blood
[10:37] Speaker 1: and the motionless, dead face of Fyodor Pavlovich. Terror-stricken, Marfa
[10:43] Speaker 1: rushed away from the window, ran out of the garden,
[10:46] Speaker 1: drew the bolt of the big gate, and rang headlong
[10:49] Speaker 1: by the back way to the neighbour, Maria Kondratyevna. Both
[10:53] Speaker 1: mother and daughter were asleep, but they waked up at
[10:56] Speaker 1: Marfa's desperate and persistent screaming and knocking at the shutter. Marfa,
[11:02] Speaker 1: shrieking and screaming incoherently, managed to tell them the main fact,
[11:06] Speaker 1: and to beg for assistance. It happened that Foma had
[11:10] Speaker 1: come back from his wanderings and was staying the night
[11:13] Speaker 1: with them. They got him up immediately. and all three
[11:17] Speaker 1: ran to the scene of the crime. On the way,
[11:20] Speaker 1: Maria Kondratyevna remembered that at about eight o'clock she heard
[11:24] Speaker 1: a dreadful scream from their garden, and this was no
[11:28] Speaker 1: doubt Grigory's scream.' Parasite!' uttered when he caught hold of
[11:33] Speaker 1: Mitya's leg.' Some one person screamed out and then was silent,'
[11:38] Speaker 1: Maria Kondratyevna explained as she ran. Running to the place
[11:42] Speaker 1: where Grigory lay, The two women, with the help of Foma,
[11:45] Speaker 1: carried him to the lodge. They lighted a candle, and
[11:49] Speaker 1: saw that Smerdyakov was no better, but he was writhing
[11:52] Speaker 1: in convulsions, his eyes fixed in a squint, and that
[11:56] Speaker 1: foam was flowing from his lips. They moistened Grigory's forehead
[12:00] Speaker 1: with water mixed with vinegar, and the water revived him
[12:04] Speaker 1: at once. He asked immediately, Is the master murdered? Then
[12:09] Speaker 1: Foma and both the women ran to the house, and
[12:13] Speaker 1: saw this time that not only the window, but also
[12:16] Speaker 1: the door into the garden was wide open, though Fyodor
[12:19] Speaker 1: Pavlovich had for the last week locked himself in every night,
[12:23] Speaker 1: and did not allow even Grigory to come in on
[12:25] Speaker 1: any pretext. Seeing that door open, they were afraid to
[12:30] Speaker 1: go in to Fyodor Pavlovich, for fear anything should happen afterwards.
[12:35] Speaker 1: And when they returned to Grigory, the old man told
[12:38] Speaker 1: them to go straight to the police captain. Maria Kondratyevna
[12:43] Speaker 1: ran there and gave the alarm to the whole party
[12:45] Speaker 1: at the police captain's. She arrived only five minutes before
[12:50] Speaker 1: Pyotr Ilyich, so that his story came not as his
[12:53] Speaker 1: own surmise and theory, but as the direct confirmation by
[12:57] Speaker 1: a witness of the theory held by all as to
[13:00] Speaker 1: the identity of the criminal, a theory he had in
[13:04] Speaker 1: the bottom of his heart refused to believe till that moment.
[13:09] Speaker 1: It was resolved to act with energy. The deputy police
[13:12] Speaker 1: inspector of the town was commissioned to take four witnesses,
[13:16] Speaker 1: to enter Fyodor Pavlovich's house, and there to open an
[13:20] Speaker 1: inquiry on the spot, according to the regular forms, which
[13:23] Speaker 1: I will not go into here. The district doctor, a
[13:27] Speaker 1: zealous man, new to his work, almost insisted on accompanying
[13:31] Speaker 1: the police captain, the prosecutor, and the investigating lawyer. I
[13:36] Speaker 1: will note briefly that Fyodor Pavlovich was found to be
[13:40] Speaker 1: quite dead, with his skull battered in. But with what?
[13:44] Speaker 1: Most likely with the same weapon with which Grigory had
[13:47] Speaker 1: been attacked. And immediately that weapon was found. Grigory, to
[13:52] Speaker 1: whom all possible medical assistance was at once given, described
[13:56] Speaker 1: in a weak and breaking voice how he had been
[13:59] Speaker 1: knocked down. They began looking with a lantern by the fence,
[14:04] Speaker 1: and found the brass pestle, dropped in a most conspicuous
[14:07] Speaker 1: place on the garden path. There were no signs of
[14:11] Speaker 1: disturbance in the room where Fyodor Pavlovich was lying, but
[14:15] Speaker 1: by the bed behind the screen they picked up from
[14:18] Speaker 1: the floor a big and thick envelope with the inscription,
[14:21] Speaker 1: A present of three thousand roubles for my angel Grushenka,
[14:25] Speaker 1: if she is willing to come. And below that had
[14:29] Speaker 1: been added by Fyodor Pavlovich, For my little chicken. There
[14:34] Speaker 1: were three seals of red sealing wax on the envelope,
[14:37] Speaker 1: but it had been torn open and was empty. The
[14:41] Speaker 1: money had been removed. They found also on the floor
[14:44] Speaker 1: a piece of narrow pink ribbon with which the envelope
[14:47] Speaker 1: had been tied up. One piece of Piotr Ilić' s evidence
[14:52] Speaker 1: made a great impression on the prosecutor and the investigating magistrate,
[14:57] Speaker 1: namely his idea that Dmitri Fyodorovitch would shoot himself before daybreak.
[15:02] Speaker 1: that he had resolved to do so, had spoken of
[15:05] Speaker 1: it to Ilyich, had taken the pistols, loaded them before him,
[15:09] Speaker 1: written a letter, put it in his pocket, etc. When
[15:13] Speaker 1: Piotr Ilyich, though still unwilling to believe in it, threatened
[15:17] Speaker 1: to tell someone so as to prevent the suicide, Mitya
[15:21] Speaker 1: had answered, grinning, You'll be too late. So they must
[15:25] Speaker 1: make haste to Makroia to find the criminal before he
[15:28] Speaker 1: really did shoot himself.' That' s clear, that's clear,' repeated the
[15:33] Speaker 1: prosecutor in great excitement.' That' s just the way with mad
[15:36] Speaker 1: fellows like that.' I shall kill myself to-morrow, so I'll
[15:40] Speaker 1: make merry till I die.' The story of how he
[15:44] Speaker 1: had bought the wine and provisions excited the prosecutor more
[15:47] Speaker 1: than ever.' Do you remember the fellow that murdered a
[15:50] Speaker 1: merchant called Olsufiev, gentlemen?' He stole fifteen hundred, went at
[15:56] Speaker 1: once to have his hair curled,' and then, without even
[15:59] Speaker 1: hiding the money—' carried it almost in his hand, in
[16:01] Speaker 1: the same way he went off to the girls. All
[16:06] Speaker 1: were delayed, however, by the inquiry, the search, and the formalities, etc.,
[16:11] Speaker 1: in the house of Fyodor Pavlovich. It all took time,
[16:15] Speaker 1: and so, two hours before starting, they sent on ahead
[16:18] Speaker 1: to Makroje, the officer of the rural police, Mavriky Mavrikevich Shmertsov,
[16:25] Speaker 1: who had arrived in the town the morning before to
[16:27] Speaker 1: get his pay. He was instructed to avoid raising the
[16:31] Speaker 1: alarm when he reached Makroje, but to keep constant watch
[16:35] Speaker 1: over the criminal till the arrival of the proper authorities,
[16:38] Speaker 1: to procure also witnesses for the arrest, police constables and
[16:42] Speaker 1: so on. Mavriky Mavrikevich did as he was told, preserving
[16:47] Speaker 1: his incognito, and giving no one but his old acquaintance,
[16:51] Speaker 1: Trifon Barisevich, the slightest hint of his secret business. He
[16:56] Speaker 1: had spoken to him just before Mitya met the landlord
[16:59] Speaker 1: in the balcony, looking for him in the dark, and
[17:02] Speaker 1: noticed at once a change in Trifon Barisovitch's face and voice.
[17:07] Speaker 1: So neither Mitya nor anyone else knew that he was
[17:10] Speaker 1: being watched. The box with the pistols had been carried
[17:14] Speaker 1: off by Trifon Barisovitch and put in a suitable place.
[17:18] Speaker 1: Only after four o'clock, almost at sunrise, All the officials,
[17:22] Speaker 1: the police captain, the prosecutor, the investigating lawyer, drove up
[17:27] Speaker 1: in two carriages, each drawn by three horses. The doctor
[17:32] Speaker 1: remained at Fyodor Pavlovich's to make a post-mortem next day
[17:35] Speaker 1: on the body, but he was particularly interested in the
[17:39] Speaker 1: condition of the servant Smerdyakov. Such violent and protracted epileptic fits,
[17:47] Speaker 1: recurring continually for twenty-four hours or rarely to be met with,
[17:51] Speaker 1: and are of interest to science, he declared enthusiastically to
[17:55] Speaker 1: his companions, and as they left they laughingly congratulated him
[18:00] Speaker 1: on his find. The prosecutor and the investigating lawyer distinctly
[18:05] Speaker 1: remembered the doctor's saying that Smerdyakov could not outlive the night.
[18:12] Speaker 1: After these long but, I think, necessary explanations, we will
[18:16] Speaker 1: return to that moment of our tale at which we
[18:18] Speaker 1: broke off. End of chapter 2 of book 9. Recording
[18:25] Speaker 1: by Martin Giesen in Hazelmere, Surrey.

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