I came across a passage from The Brothers Karamazov (in an Elden Ring lore video lol) that I enjoyed so I have been considering reading it. I’m not particularly great at interpreting literature and I also read a bit slowly, so I wasn’t sure if I would be better off starting with something shorter and simpler that he wrote. The passage in the video, a conversation between Ivan and Alyosha (mostly Ivan recounting stories of the suffering of children) seemed fairly straightforward to me, but I don’t know about the rest of the book.
Also I see there are a number of different English translations available for his works, are any of them particularly good or bad?
pevear and volokhonsky are my go to
their stuff flows better and is more readable but is less literal
I tried and failed to read BK twice, first with Constance and second with Magarshack. Picked up the P & V version and couldn't put it down. Definitely my rec as well.