Crime and Punishment (The Penguin Classics)

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Other authorsDavid Magarshack (Translator)
Paperback, 1982

Status

Available

Call number

FIC A3 Dos

Publication

Penguin Books

Pages

559

Description

Classic Literature. Fiction. HTML: Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment is one of the world's first psychological thrillers. A mesmerizing detective story with an intriguing and multifarious central character, Crime and Punishment hinges on the ethical dilemmas and angst of the student Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov who plans and implements the murder of a ruthless pawnbroker. Rodion convinces himself that in killing her he will both solves his financial problems and divests the world of a wicked leech. But can he commit a murder and escape all consequences?.

Collection

Barcode

2182

Language

Original language

Russian

Original publication date

1866

Physical description

559 p.; 7.1 inches

Other editions

Media reviews

Literary Hub
I dislike intensely The Brothers Karamazov and the ghastly Crime and Punishment rigmarole.

User reviews

LibraryThing member clfisha
Surprisingly brilliant

"Brother, brother, what are you saying? Why, you have shed blood?" cried Dunya in despair.
"Which all men shed," he put in almost frantically, "which flows and has always flowed in streams, which is spilt like champagne, and for which men are crowned in the Capitol and are
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called afterwards benefactors of mankind... If I had succeeded I should have been crowned with glory, but now I'm trapped."

A surprising book. A book whose reputation overshadows it with those dreaded words "a worthy classic". A book of social commentary, a discussion of philosophy, of morality and justice, a plea for the Christian faith. But it’s also a playful crime novel, a crime of The Why, a wry look at art of catching criminals and with the number one genre attribute: a gripping plot. It is also beautifully written; discussion and descriptions slip of the page and their gems lurk in your brain. It is far too easy a read for such a chewy book.

“It would be interesting to know what it is men are most afraid of. Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what they fear most.”

Of course it's not without its faults, Personally (and though open to interpretation) the epilogue with its religion as a panacea felt a like a let down to the topics explored, a simplistic choice God or Nihilism. Sexism is endemic, although female characters abound they all lean towards self sacrificing end of the spectrum (yes Sonia is the embodiment of self sacrifice but every female character?) Racism is littered throughout too with throw away anti Semitic comments and for some reason a dislike of Germans. I can ignore these things, there is too much good stuff to take away but it depends on your sensitivity.

Where is it?" thought Raskolnikov. "Where is it I've read that someone condemned to death says or thinks, an hour before his death, that if he had to live on some high rock, on such a narrow ledge that he'd only room to stand, and the ocean, everlasting darkness, everlasting solitude, everlasting tempest around him, if he had to remain standing on a square yard of space all his life, a thousand years, eternity, it were better to live so than to die at once! Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be!... How true it is! Good God, how true! Man is a vile creature!... And vile is he who calls him vile for that," he added a moment later.

Overall highly recommended. Ignore the overly academic introductions and essays and dive right it, take away what you will and most of all wallow and enjoy (unless you’re a Nihilist)
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LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
When reading this I constantly thought of Ayn Rand. Which, I realize, is likely to prejudice many people against this review. I'd hasten to say that in terms of philosophy Rand and Dostoevsky can't be more different. However, if you've read any Ayn Rand, you know her hallmark is that her characters
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tend to be embodiments of different philosophical principles, both in their actions and speech. Reading Crime and Punishment, it occurred to me it was no accident Rand was born and raised in Russia, that this is where she got it from, and I do know she was an admirer of Dostoevsky's writing. Lest you get the wrong idea, the Crime and Punishment is not as didactic and more subtle in its message than Ayn Rand's novels--you will find no 70-page speeches. Most of the characters in Crime and Punishment do feel like real people, and not just walking philosophical ideas, but the way their philosophy is tied in with their character is something that up to now I had found only in Rand--and reading this book I understood better what she was reacting against in her culture. There's no question that Crime and Punishment is an ideological novel, an indictment of utilitarianism in both free market and socialist forms as well as individualism and ethical egoism, and arguments of the main character prefigure Nietzsche (who ironically was also an admirer of Dostoevsky). Mind you, an indictment is an accusation, not a conviction, and I didn't find Dostoevsky persuasive (many of his philosophical characters and arguments strike me as straw men), and much of the novel repelled me even though a lot of it also won my admiration.

The book's central character is Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, an impoverished student. The first part deals with the "crime" of the title, his axe murder of an elderly pawnbroker and her sister. He tells himself he could do a lot for people with her money--a "greatest good for the greatest number" sort of argument--and that he needs to test his mettle as an "extraordinary" man, such as Napoleon, who can "dare" step "over the barriers" and thus be beyond the law (the aspect that reminded me of Nietzsche). The next five parts deal with Raskolnikov's "punishment." His internal punishment as he's lashed by his conscience and his fear of discovery. The first part I found suspenseful and a fascinating psychological study of the mind of a murderer, even though, in many respects, Raskolnikov came off as sympathetic. He can be kind and generous--leaving charity anonymously; he's insightful and sensitive when he intuits the nature of the man who wants to marry his sister from his mother's letter. Although right from the first, I was struck, and a bit repelled, by how vividly Dostoevsky represents the terrible squalor surrounding Raskolnikov. All about him is greasy and ragged, stained and frayed and hopeless. There is humor, but it tends to a black hue. That dark atmosphere only increased through the book; the terrible cruelty of what Dostoevsky puts his characters through is hard to take. Raskolnikov becomes harder and harder to take too. An essay in the Norton Critical edition I read states that a Russian word, dostoevshchina, is derived from the author's name that means someone difficult, perverse, or who has "an excessive and morbid preoccupation with" their "own psychological processes." And boy, that sure describes the increasingly unbearable Raskolnikov.

Although I found much of Dostoevksy's anti-Enlightenment message deplorable, I couldn't help but be struck by the novel's philosophical and psychological richness. Another of the essays in this edition says that the pawnbroker could be seen as representing the bourgeoisie, and her murder thus a condemnation by Dostoevsky of using violent means in their elimination in the name of the people and thus a condemnation of what the Bolsheviks would do decades after the novel was published. Reading this novel published in 1865, one can see the intellectual broth out of which Soviet Russia emerged decades later. The novel has also been seen as a critique of nihilism and a forerunner of existentialism. The use of dream imagery made me think of Freud. I was more put off by what Dostoevsky seemed to hold up as an ideal than what he condemns, as embodied by the meek Sonya. She may be a "fallen" woman and sinner, and in her way Raskonikov's female counterpart in transgressing moral and social boundaries, but she's also a devout Christian and a redemptive figure. She's a prostitute who sold her body to feed a stepmother who was abusive to her and the alcoholic father who uses the money she has made that way to go on drunken binges. Though I wouldn't say Dostoevsky approves of Sonya's choice to prostitute herself, he seems to suggest both her suffering and her willingness to thus debase herself for others is ennobling. I had a similar negative reaction to actions of Dunya, Raskonikov's sister, who also prostitutes herself in a self-sacrificing way in accepting a marriage proposal to help her family. To be fair to Dostoevsky, he does seem to suggest that despite their good intentions, both women would have endangered their soul had they continued on their course. Nevertheless, I did find miserable and malignant the sense that self-abnegation, renunciation, a cringing and self-effacing humility and the embrace of irrationality and suffering constitute the "good."

I'll say this though, I never found the novel dull. Annoying in places given Raskonikov's increasing histrionics, often depressing, and with a rather lame and unconvincing redemptive ending, but never dull. And so many scenes and characters are so vivid I feel they'll be etched in my mind forever. I wouldn't call this novel a favorite, too dark for my tastes and too antithetical to all I value, but it's masterfully written and thought-provoking.
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LibraryThing member cranmergirl
An interesting Russian classic about a young man, Raskolnikov, who murders an old lady pawnbroker based on a theory. Raskolnikov is a student intellectual under the influence of radical, collectivist thinking, prevalent in Russia at the time. Raskolnikov's theory is that there are two kinds of men;
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peasants and those of superior intellect. Laws apply only to peasants to keep them in line, but do not necessarily apply to the intellectual elite. Crimes, even murder, committed for the "greater good" by said intellectuals might actually be not only acceptable but desirable. So Raskolnikov murders and robs a nasty old lady, hoping to "kill two birds with one stone", so to speak. He can help his family with the money he steals from her while at the same time, ridding the world of a worthless piece of human debris. What he actually discovers to his horror is that he is unable to function after the crime due to his overwhelming guilt and paranoia until a streetwalker, named Sonia, finally persuades him to confess his crime to the police. Sonia is ironically portrayed by the author as a much clearer thinking and noble individual than the supposed "intellectual", Raskolnikov. Her positive influence ultimately saves Raskolnikov from himself. Through Sonia's example of love and religious devotion, Raskolnikov finally finds what has eluded him all along, a life of purpose and fulfillment.
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LibraryThing member Ayling
This is my first Dostoevsky and I have always wanted to read a Russian author. I really quite enjoyed this and I am now keen to read more.I read it last year so this book isn't quite fresh enough on my mind to do a lengthy review. I'm not an English Literature student either so I'm not going to go
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into an in depth review of this book, though I would have thought it would make a very good subject for one.I did start reading this a long time ago when I was about 15 I suppose and got - not bored with it I suppose but lost patience with all the names. Now I'm a slightly more patient reader and understand a bit more about Russian name giving and that - I found it a lot easier to get along with.It is basically a rather simple sounding story: Raskolnikov, a student down on his luck - living in poverty, decides to murder a pawn broker in order to steal her riches. He plans it in the greatest detail. The story of Crime and Punishment is how Raskolnikov lives with himself afterwards.It is a deeply psychological book and the characters portrayed are so real it is almost frightening. And that is what takes a simple story of a crime committed, into a much deeper, much more complicated one.
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LibraryThing member BookMarkMe
Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment stands as one of literatures greatest explorations of the human psyche, well the base part of that psyche.

There is not much that is pleasant in the world of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov. Following his planned murder of the pawnbroker Alena Ivanovna and the
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subsequent murder of Lizaveta , the sister who stumbles into the scene of the crime we are propelled through his swirling half mad mind.

In a series of set pieces he attempts to rationalise and understand his behaviour whilst simultaneously dealing with the usual criminal issues of guilt, paranoia and abjection.

Murder, alcoholism, mental illness, child cruelty, domestic abuse, etc, etc Dostoevsky minutely examines each and more through the characters that swirl around Raskolnikov in his 19th Century Petersburg.

Go on, immerse yourself in the depravity and inertia that is the mind of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov.
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LibraryThing member SanctiSpiritus
The author draws you in slowly, cunningly, and with great precision. Never have I read a novel where the characters are so real. It's as if the author is painting a masterpiece from the impressionist period. The author has exclaimed on paper what every man feels. Every man believes what they feel,
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no other man has felt or shared. The author has made human the emotions between good and evil, light, and darkness, shallowness, and depth, depravity, and fortitude.

The author has also illuminated and underscored the premise that to suffer, is good. He is right. Would Spring be so welcome if we had no Winter? The guile the author gives the characters is amazing considering this is a novel of the 19th century. That said, this book is such an easy read compared to the fright I had upon beginning it.
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LibraryThing member DWallaceFleming
Reading Crime and Punishment was one of the most rewarding reading experiences I've yet undertaken. Sometimes reading the text can feel akin to drinking from a firehouse and he's been criticized for being a writer of melodrama and cliche. And yet that is what makes the book so interesting to me.
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It's fascinating to make the attempt to discover how Dostoyevsky manages to make us care and how he essentially pulls us through hundreds of pages through the trick of mystery and suspense. I could feel him toying with the lessons he learned from Victor Hugo while in prison, thinking to himself in a true Engineer's fashion, 'yeah, this will get them.'

I think that this book is best explained by drawing parallels between hypnosis. Specifically, I'm referred to the fractionation technique of taking subjects in and out of deeper and deeper trances (comparable to his gradual increase in paragraph length), the dissociative technique of attributing key statements to others (comparable to the epistolary nature of the early books of the novel) and the response anticipation of making someone wait for key information (comparable to prolonged, repetitive discussions between Raskolnikov and the inspector and the general theme of waiting to be discovered). In summary, I believe from my reading of this, The Brother's and Notes that Dostoyevsky's prose style is that of a verbal hypnotist.

One thing that stands out in my mind now that I'm reflecting back after several years is the dream with the beating of the horse and the man that kept saying, "I own it, it's my property!" And maybe this is a small complaint that I have: This dreams seems to be an allusion to an argument against capitalism and in favor of an impending political revolution but how can the theme of crime and punishment intermesh with a general political theme of that time such as anti-capitalism?

It's also interesting how he made me care so much for Raskolnikov. This novel does an excellent job of describing the ideas behind ambition, even misguided, petty ambition.
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LibraryThing member mattviews
Hailed as one of the greatest novels ever written in all times, Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment tells the tale of an ex-law student's meticulous, calculated murder of a pawnbroker woman and his showing no remorse for his atrocious crime. In this particularly vivid translation by David
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McDuff, the words "morbid" and "rabid fury" appear at least 5 times, respectively throughout the book. Such stylistic choices invariably set the mood. The dark and morbid prose ominously sets the foreboding tone of the novel as though the act of murder is indeed a preordained announcement of fate noted by Raskolnikov from the beginning.
The murder occurred at the very beginning of the book and proceeded which was Raskolnikov's meticulous planning and "rehearsal" of the perfect crime. He would paid a visit to the pawnbroker, made careful notice of the setup of her apartment, listened for the pitch of the notched key she used to unlock the chest, and sewed a piece of cloth inside his waistcoat to hold the axe. Whether the crime was destitute-driven, the origin of his action could be diffuse and was somehow associated with certain morbid sensations. Indeed Raskolnikov subsequently conferred on his theory about the psychological state of a criminal's mind throughout the entire process of committing the crime. In his audacious "ordinary vs. extraordinary" statement, the latter could commit the most atrocious crime to whom law did not apply. To Raskolnikov, the morbid theory justified the act of committing atrocious acts upon morally corrupt individuals (the loutish, loathsome, filthy old moneylender woman per se) for the benefit of society.

The rest (five-sixths) of the book dealt with Raskolnikov's psychological aftermath of his crime-the intermittent moments of remorse, the excruciating physical suffering (seized with fear that he might give away his murder in his delirium), the howling of his own conscience, and the to-confess-or-not-to-confess struggle. Indeed Raskolnikov's own qualms of conscience had given him away-that investigator Porfiry infallibly identified Raskolnikov as the murderer by employing psychological tactics to play with Raskolnikov's mind. Porfiry contemplated that no less cruel was the punishment from one's own conscience. It was the formidable suffering that led Porfiry to purposely send an artisan to the street and randomly accused Raskolnikov of murder, to make him panic. That's why he wouldn't worry about arresting him imminently.

An interesting notion that kept repeating throughout the novel was redemption. Raskolnikov might have found his redemption through Sonya, a downtrodden prostitute who prayed and read the bible. But Sonya herself was asking for mercy and redemption for her own sin to which Raskolnikov deemed as moral suicide. Sonya's father Marmeladov in his deathbed asked for forgiveness and died in Sonya's arms. Svidrigailov, the landowner in whose home Raskolnikov's sister Dunya was ill-treated, offered to cover the cost of Katerina's (Sonya's stepmother) funeral and endowed each of the children with 1500 roubles to be paid on their maturity. In a sense, Svidrigailov hoped to find redemption of his sin (the killing of his wife and servant) through a good deed.

Not until in Siberia did Raskolnikov truly begin his repentance. One would be mistaken to think Raskolnikov had felt remorse for his crime when he confessed to Sonya. At that point all he did was nothing but recounting the whole murdering event, from the rehearsal, the timing, and the actual murder from which he was emotionally detached. He simply wanted to make the dare and thus never availed himself of the pawnbroker's treasures. It was the Devil who killed her, he claimed. It was the kind of theory; the sort of argument that said a single villainous act was allowable if the central aim was good. Whether he truly found redemption from his depravity and perversity would be left to readers' judgment.

A gloomy, melancholy, and taut air hovered above the entire novel and the language of which could become overwhelming and awkward at times. The plot itself was not so much suspenseful as the most jolting event took place in the beginning. What really gripped my mind were the conflicting emotions of fear, guilt, remorse, and courage. Whenever he was haunted, Raskolnikov would search his memory for some hints he might inadvertently gave away evidence of his crime. You might question how Dostoyevsky could penetrate the mind of a murderer so thoroughly and verbalize those freaky delirious thoughts. Every single character in the novel exerted some sense of agitation which, again, permeated throughout the book. The persistent destitute chased after Sonya's stepmother who already suffered from tuberculosis and hacked up blood. The children starved for days and were forced to perform street dance and begged for money. The inebriated men consumed huge amount of alcohol and paid numerous visits to brothels and indulged in debauchery. The most repugnant of all was Pyotr (Luzhin) who took advantage of women's glooming poverty and wielded the constant reproach over them that he had done a favor, making them forever indebted to him. He would manipulate in hope that Dunya and her mother would fall out with Raskolnikov out of his slanderous remarks. His would slyly slip a 100-rouble note into Sonya's pocket, falsely accused her stealing the money among a ghastly audience, and hopefully made her feel indebted to him.

Crime and Punishment is not an easy book to read. You will be rewarded with a sense of fulfillment that is so promising when you manage to finish. No sooner when you open the book than it provokes your mind. The whole novel is about morbidity that gives rise of a serious crime. That means you have to persevere with the psychotic nature of a murderer. It is impossible to do justice of all the implications and historical meaning underlying in this book with just a few paragraphs. Do read it for yourself.
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LibraryThing member GeoffWyss
The last half is better than the first, which is messily discursive and, when it attempts humor, annoying. Parts of the book feel written in a hurry, which in fact they were. The ending is a sop tacked on for the readers of the magazine where it was first published, and this seriously hurts the
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narrative arc of the novel. But you have to admire D's ability to capture the broad solidity of a people and time.
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LibraryThing member surreality
Plot: The plot itself doesn't matter. It merely serves as a backdrop and frame for the characters and ideas, and thus moves very slowly to give them enough time. Side plots tie in whenever characters are introduced to flesh out their background.

Characters: These are the true glory of the book.
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Down to the smallest side character they're superbly sketched and individualized, and their thought processes are laid out with enough detail for the reader to easily follow them. None of the characters are truly likable, but they are understandable, which is more important.

Style: It's a difficult read. Epic and wordy, the story meanders about and sometimes goes off in unexpected directions with page-long discussions of an idea. It doesn't excuse any inattention from the reader. The Garnett translation used to be the established standard.

Plus: It's an amazing character study.

Minus: At times it's an ordeal to go through it, with the last page being the goal in mind.

Summary: It's a great book, but one that demands attention, stamina and patience from the reader. I found it a harder read than The Brothers Karamasov, but equally rewarding.
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LibraryThing member petescisco
Along with The Idiot, this is one of Dostoevsky's master works. Big ideas are at play here, including philosophies of nihilism and the concept of the superman, who by the nature of his innate qualities is set aside from the usual human rabble. In this case, a poor student convinced of his great
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worth murders a pawnbroker and must deal with the psychological catastrophe that follows. Dostoevsky, himself a victim of epilepsy and destructive psychological impulses and addictions, understood all too well that it is not enough or even possible to separate ourselves from others if we want to stand our own ground. It is ourselves, the darkest part of ourselves that we must escape if we are to be free. But, as this novel and his other writing reveals, Dostoevsky says we can't flee those parts of ourselves, we can only at best keep them at bay while at our best, and give into them during our weakest hours. Not the most uplifting message, to be sure, but it is the truth as Dostoevsky saw it, and this novel is its purest distillation.
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LibraryThing member Oklahoma
I thought I had enjoyed Dostoevsky before, but this time I was absolutely enthralled. There is a certain amount of respect in me for an author that can in one moment make you despise a villainous character, only to have you breathless form the tension as you try to protect him the next.

I hated
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Rodya, yet I sympathized with and pitied him; I held my breath for him right to the bitter end, even as I was hating him for being selfish and gloomy.

This was the easiest, most engrossing Russian novel I have yet read; the most intense, and the most aching.

Who couldn't admire Sonya, and Dounia for being so noble? Who could not admire Dmitri Prokofitch for being so loyal and so simple? Or Profiry for being so observant and devious? Truly a wonderful array of characters; an immensely enjoyable read for anyone with a love of the human mind.
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LibraryThing member lizhelen
This is a beautiful book that looks into the state of the human condition and examines a typically russian character and his moral shortcomings. I have always enjoyed the russian authors worldview and find they show beauty in the difficult aspects of life and survival against a backdrop of harsh
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environment and endemic poverty. It is the character development that is particularly fascinating and the reader finds themselves in a state of empathy with a morally dubious protagonist. If you enjoy pondering the grey areas of life and the thorny end of society and morality, this book covers it extremely well
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LibraryThing member jclemence
**Warning: Spoilers**

I don't think I've ever come across a book quite like Crime and Punishment. Usually, I can at the very least quickly classify a book in the broad terms of "I liked it" or "I didn't like it." Crime and Punishment doesn't really fit in this paradigm. I can't tell you if I liked
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it or not, because I don't know. In fact, it almost defies description at all. Nevertheless, I will say what I can about Dostoyevsky's novel.

The basic plot centers on a young man named Raskolnikov who commits a double murder early on in the story. The rest of the book details the slow, agonizing punishment of that crime, which for him is an internal battle between his intellect, which says that he has done no wrong, and his conscience, which informs him that what he did was in fact very wrong. His internal strife slowly eats away at Raskolnikov to the point where he confesses his crime and is sent to Siberia for hard labor. While in Siberia, his suffering for his misdeeds reaches a climax, and as a result he finds redemption and is reanimated as a person. His soul is restored.

The positive elements of the book are several: First, there are multiple scenes which evoked strong emotional reactions as I read. Dostoyevsky had an amazing ability to write viscerally. Second, the novel displays (accurately, in my view) the destructiveness of adhering to a false worldview. Raskolnikov came close to breaking down throughout the story, precisely because he could not reconcile his worldview with reality. Conversely, the author represents well the transformation or regeneration that occurs with true repentance--a lesson that will forever ring true.

There are several negative elements of the book, though. As is typical with Russian literature, it is a heavy, long read. I personally could not say that I enjoyed reading it, but while hard, it was worthwhile. (Perhaps it is the literary equivalent to eating one's vegetables?) In addition, Dostoyevsky had several side stories that dealt with the current events of the day--events with which I was completely in the dark. I admit, this is probably more of a commentary on myself than the book, but since I am not in academia and have precious little time to read as it is, it makes little sense for me to study up on such details just to read a book.

Overall, I am just not sure what to do with this book. It speaks to the reader on multiple levels and contains much that is good, but it was not particularly a "good read" in the sense that it was not a book I would recommend to curl up with next to a fire. Reading it was more like running a marathon without knowing where the finish line was. On balance, I am rating this book 3 stars, which I freely admit may reflect more on me than Dostoyevsky's classic work.
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LibraryThing member Bookmarque
I will admit that R. is dehumanized and suffering but largely due to his own folly. Yes, it was difficult to survive in Czarist Russia, but his other friend who is also a former student, is making ends meet and hasn’t gone over the edge like R.

This novel was almost too long to preserve all of the
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personality traits assigned to R. and the people around him. I remember once focussing on how he felt about Sonia, the prostitute daughter of a drunk he meets once in a bar and gets told the drunk’s entire life story. Then it shifted to the relationship between himself and his mother and sister. His feelings towards his sister are almost identical to those he has towards Sonia. Both women are pure at heart and only he can save them from the world.

What I can’t understand is how caught up in and utterly slaves to emotions these people are. R. cannot do anything because he’s paralyzed by a series of emotions he cannot get under control. Rage. Self-loathing. Guilt. Outrage. Anger. All of these plague R. and he cannot act with any will of his own. Maybe that’s why he was deranged.

One example I remember of how screwed up and detached from reality R. is when he accidentally on purpose gets run down by a street coach or carriage. The people who hit him want to give him money and he eventually accepts it only to literally throw it in the river shortly thereafter. Unbelievable! He is destitute and wearing rags and hadn’t eaten in God knows how long, and he throws the money away.

Another example is that he fails to use the money and trinkets he steals from the old woman. Part of his reason for killing her is that he will free this fortune from the old woman and use it for good. The end justifies the means. After all his rationalization, he doesn’t have the resolve to do what he said he would do. The money he would get from killing her would go to good works and be much better used in the grand scheme of things than it would be if it stayed with the old woman who was mean and would never do good with her money. All she propagated was more despair and misery.

Derangement is maybe a family trait. Dunya his sister is pursued by a slightly twisted man name Svidrygaylov. When he lures her into his chambers alone and tries to rape her, she pulls a gun on him and tries to shoot him. She misses. Instead of trying again, she lowers the gun and completely surrenders to S. Is she nuts?

Anyway, the end is of course in Siberia (he takes forever to confess but in actual time it’s only a few months). He has confessed and is sent to a workhouse. Sonia follows. Dunya and his friend R. also follow and marry and live in a nearby town. His mother dies of a brain fever or something.

I don’t understand the wrestling with emotions and the lack of will power to act. I guess it was a different time and place than here but, it seemed like R. wasn’t the criminal he was supposed to be. He only killed the old woman to see if he could commit a murder. He admits that to Sonia or Dunya. I wish D. would have made the old woman act like the evil harridan that R. makes her out to be. What I get is just R’s opinion of the pawnbroker from only his interaction with her. I would have liked to see the pawnbroker cheating or humiliating other people who came to her with pledges. The way it was written, we only have R’s opinion of how unjust and cruel she is and I don’t trust R’s opinion since he seems to have no reason, just emotion.

Another thing that I wish would have been different was how much time was devoted to the most intricate details of everyone’s life. I think that if that level of fine focus was only centered on R and his immediate circle, the book would have been more understandable and the threads in the story easier to keep track of. It’s the minutiae that obscures the main plot and theme of the story for me.
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LibraryThing member Jthierer
Loved it, but I was horrified at the way I found myself hoping that this coldblooded killer would get away with his crime. It got so bad that I actually had to stop reading at times because I was so afraid he was going to be found out by his increasingly bizarre behavior. I can see how some people
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would find this too dense to get through, but I enjoyed the detail.
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LibraryThing member fakelvis
Only through great suffering comes wisdom and enlightenment.

That is one of the many themes in Crime and Punishment.

This novel was written by Dostoevsky after his time in exile in Siberia, where he was serving a sentence in the Katorga camps (a system of forced labour camps that preceded the
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Gulag).

The story follows the young Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov (a student of law) after he committed murder, and details his mental and physical anguish of his secret and his attempts to justify his actions.

The story unravels slowly but surely as the idea of noble suffering makes its way to the fore and Rodion has to make some tough decisions that will impact many of the characters in his life.

I like to draw an analogy between Rodion's anguish and mine at reading the book. It is long -- very long -- and thoroughly enjoyable, but at points I didn't want to put it down and felt compelled to read for very long stretches. Alas, the size of the book make this impossible and the anguish of the story and its weight on me drew on for over a week.

In the end, the closing words referring to "another story" could refer as much to Crime and Punishment itself as to my story of reading the novel.
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LibraryThing member fuzzy_patters
On the surface, Crime and Punishment is a story about crime and punishment in the form of a guilty conscience. On another level, it is a story about the psychology of love and rationalization. On yet a deeper level, it is a coming of age story about a man who goes from cold, cynical rationality, to
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a deeper appreciation for life itself. Somehow, Dostoevsky managed to weave all of this together brilliantly and creatds a masterpiece.

Perhaps Dostoevsky's greatest strength as a writer was his ability to create characters who were very realistic in thought and feeling and his ability to convey their attitudes to us. The reader feels as if he is reading about old friends that he knows very well rather than characters in a novel. As such, one begins to feel sympathy for them in all of their trials and worry about them between readings. Crime and Punishment is no different in this regard. The reader is left feeling great sympathy for all involved and is emotionally affected by their lives.

Dostoevsky also provides the modern reader with the opportunity to experience the sights, sounds, and mostly the attitudes of nineteenth century Russia. To read Dostoevsky is to take a time machine of sorts into another era in a foreign land, and yet, we can see the universalities of the human condition that transcend time an place. In this way, his novels become relevant to us, and we begin to understand ourselves better because of him.
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LibraryThing member Myhi
Raskolnikov - the myth.
'To be a Raskolnikov without a reason' - story of his life: E.M. Cioran.

Depressing masterpiece, a very tasteful lecture though. I've always been fascinated by the influence of this character in the world's literature of the XXth century. Years ago, worked hard on a personal
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project: revealing Dostoievski's influence on the Romanian literature (Rebreanu - The Forest of the Hanged). Should have finished it... kept on thinking no one else would care to ever go through it.

Winter/Northern literature; no way to read such a thing during the summer.
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LibraryThing member misterwhiz
Crime and Punishment was my first Dostoevsky experience. It stands out above many other classics in one important respect: it's a page-turner. I couldn't put it down. Where I had slogged through other classics, reading them for their exquisite wordiness more than for the story, Crime and Punishment
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engrossed me from page one. In fact, all of Dostoevsky's works have the same strength: they suck you in and don't let go.

His acute observations bring the story to life with amazing vividness. No one else could capture that fascinating, dark personality. Completely engrossing.
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LibraryThing member nycdreamsession
The main thing I loved about his work is the strong characters and how they connected with philosophies. Russia in the mid-1800s was a hotbed of mixing philosophies and personas with rising amounts of socialists, communists, atheists, nihilists, and just general re-envisionings of morality and
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other basic concepts. Dostoevsky himself was a member of a radical political group in his youth and an atheist and socialist, and was sentenced to death. His death sentence was overturned and became a sentence of hard labor in Siberia. Meanwhile, while he was in Siberia, he was only allowed to read the New Testament and became a very strict Russian orthodox.

His characters are all very philosophical and all discuss their philosophies, mostly externally, but at least internally through narration with the reader as a motivating factor for their actions. As an intelligent and open minded reader, these philosophical diatribes on things that actually matter and could apply to a modern reader's day to day life can be very enlightening. His ultimate philosophical claims don't matter nearly as much as how he and his characters reach them and their dialogues on these issues can still be extremely enlightening and opening to any belief system, portraying legitimately good and bad arguments for all kind of belief systems, in a strict religious sense, but also in the political spectrum, and other general philosophies on morality. Basically, these dialogues serve as amazing food for thought. When I first read Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov years ago, it made me question religion and be more open-minded in regards to religion, and ultimately made me more conservative morally and generally respectful of Christians and their beliefs and helped me see the amazing beauty of Christianity and its implications.

Don't think though, that Dostoevsky's work is all moralizing and edifying though. His writing style is very simple, somewhat similar to Charles Dickens, and the narrative structure is very straightforward and completely linear. His works are very easy when given a chance, and that ties in greatly with how he manages to merge elements of genre fiction into some fine literature. His two main well known epics (out of a total 5 massive novels he wrote) are Crime and Punishment, and the Brothers Karamazov, and both infuse elements of suspense fiction and detective/crime fiction creating a very quickly moving narrative that manages to keep the reader on his toes while still delivering philosophical debates and other things of that nature.

This is all also tied in with Dostoevsky's total sincerity. His works are very sincere, and almost completely lack irony. They feel very trusting and confiding in the reader and don't try to trick you as a reader or see how clever Dostoevsky is, like a lot of literary fiction really doesn't. This sincerity allows readers of Dostoevsky to form strong ties to his characters through seeing them as ultimately broken people, but very real people, through seeing and connecting with both their actions and their reasons for them, in their philosophies. These connections allow me, and presumably most readers of Dostoevsky, to see these characters as real people that could be alive today. These connections also affect me personally as the Brothers Karamazov hit me so hard that it completely solidified my interest in psychological fiction, because I wanted to read more of them in this lifetime, after seeing the beauty and power of literature that can be carried in these amazing texts like most of Dostoevsky's work.

-Ken from NY
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LibraryThing member missizicks
Crime and Punishment has long been my favourite book. I have read the David McDuff translation for Penguin three times. The Pevear & Volokhonsky translation for Vintage, though, blows that one out of the water. It is more immediate, more human, simultaneously capturing the period Dostoevsky was
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writing in alongside the sense that life is timeless and modernity began in the 1860s. Crime and Punishment is the first true crime novel. As someone who reads a lot of crime, I can see how much Christie, Raymond, La Plante, Chandler, Conan Doyle, all of them owe to this one great novel. Even the writers of Columbo owe a debt to Porfiry Petrovich. There are so many universal themes in the book, too - religious and political fanaticism, science and logic versus faith, the portrait of a psychopath, the disintegration of society under the weight of excess. It is Dostoevsky's masterpiece and, for me, no other work of literature even comes close in scope or achievement.
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LibraryThing member TerrapinJetta
Another 5* classic. I enjoyed this so much, particularly the subtle way the reader is manipulated in thinking a certain way, only to have it thrown back and overturned. The vivide cycles of repentance, justification, delerium brought on by conscience, the insanity, it's just so wonderfully brought
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to life. It made me think a lot about the conscience and consciousness of humankind. The way Dostoevsky describes emotions and what Raskolnikov is going through is ... it's like the words are just an irrelivant unimportant medium for this really strong vivid emotion which is being shown to us. I hope that makes sense.

A fantastic story, with many different levels. The writing is so easy to get into and so gripping, I guarantee pretty much anybody will be able to read it and enjoy it.
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LibraryThing member agatatera
So, it’s time for the first book review in my life! What is even more difficult – it needs to be in English. I hope I’ll manage.

Until today I don’t know why I did not read earlier a work of one of the Russian literature classics – Fyodor Dostoyevsky “Crime and Punishment”. But the
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time came and now I may share my thoughts with you.

In my opinion it’s an incredible study of human mind and feelings. We’re getting to know inside out the motif of crime, fall, ambition, love, fear, devilry, change… Together with Raskolnikov we’re experiencing his change from a poor ex-student, through determined by ego trip killer, till the final understanding of himself and acceptance of his fate.

The book starts with a description of the life situation of Rodion Raskolnikov – a poor ex-student of law. We’re finding him in his cubby, thinking. He is meditating about the rules in the society, rules of individuals. Is there any division on chosen individuals, who actually may do whatever they want, just to realize their social mission, for the sake of others, ordinary citizens? Is it allowed for them to kill others for that? If yes, shall they be punished for the crime? These and other thoughts are in his head all the time, also when he is going again to visit Alona Ivanova, the shylock. Through this visit he is trying to “check” the place of planned crime. But when he is continuing his meditations he is deciding that he doesn’t want to kill her. However, he receive a letter from his mother and sister, with an information about imminent wedding of his sister. Rodion sees this weeding (indeed in line with the truth) as a sacrifice of Dunya, for the sake of better beginning of his professional life. This information influence his decision and finally he decide to kill the shylock and her sister – Lizaveta. Since then we’re observing his moral and mental torment, meditations about the crime, punishment, society… As a result of the meditation (and also additional factors – people around Raskolnikov, events in which he implicate himself) he decide to go to the police office and confess his guilt. The book is ending with a short description of the first year of his servitude in Siberia, where he goes through the view-of-the-world metamorphosis, he came back to his religion and he waits for the future life with Sonia Semyonovna.

Dostoyevsky created very interesting characters, both, leading and supporting. So, we have for example full of love for the family and continence sister of Raskolnikov – Dunya Romanova. There is also his love - Sonia Semyonovna, good, sweet, religious girl, forced by the situation of her family to sell her body on the streets; who through the help of a few people swear her occupation off and go with Raskolnikov to his servitude in Siberia. Next interesting person is his friend - Dmitri Razumikhin, person, who is with Raskolnikov all the time, he tries to help as much as possible, support, understand – the ideal of a friend. There is also Porfiry Petrovich, detective, who keep playing psychological game with Raskolnikov, not only to make him realize his guilt, but also to understand the reasons of the crime and to find mitigative factors.

Saint Petersburg is shown through the eyes of poor people, we’re getting to know nooks of starving people, districts occupied by shylocks, hookers, drunkards, full of dung and dirt. But also from time to time we may discover a beauty of the city – for example the panorama of the city from the Nicholas Bridge. But in general the city is shown as a rotten city, full of wheeler-dealers and swindlers, being against the foreigners.

To finish – I’m happy I’ve manager finally to read this book. It definitely enticed me for the continuation of my adventure with Russian classics.
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LibraryThing member kettle666
While working at a menial vacation job in the summer of 1960 I read Crime And Punishment during my lunchbreaks. At that time I had not read any Tolstoy, and I remember thinking that if Dostoyevsky was generally regarded as number two to Leo T then War And Peace must be my next big Russian read. And
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so it was, and after all these years I still feel pretty certain that Dostoyevsky is my man. I've read Tolstoy and enjoyed Anna Karenina extremely. But it is Dostoyevsky who knocked me out then and he remains the giant of Russia for me. Karamazov, The Idiot, and Crime And Punishment are my favourites. C & P is a modern psychological novel as well. It reads so well as a portrait of basic human types, struggling through all this fiddle we call our lives. War and Peace looks like a Hollywood epic compared to the subtle independent movie that is C&P.
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(8186 ratings; 4.3)

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FIC A3 Dos
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