Crime and Punishment (Enriched Classics) | Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Crime and Punishment (Enriched Classics) | Fyodor Dostoyevsky | Top 5 of all time

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Crime and Punishme...

	Crime and Punishment (Enriched Classics) Fyodor Dostoyevsky Pocket, 2004 - 704 pages average customer review:based on 464 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A great novel

This is, of course, one of the great novels of all time. Fyodor Dostoyevsky created a number of truly wonderful works over time, such as "The Brothers Karamazov," "The Gambler," and "The Devils" (or "The Possessed"). The "Translator's Introduction" to "Crime and Punishment" provides useful context. David Magarshack, the translator, observes that (page 11) ". . .the main theme. . .had occupied Dostoyevsky ever since he gave up his career in the army to devote himself to literature." Shortly thereafter, Magarshack quotes Dostoyevsky himself from an earlier work, "White Knights," with the author saying (page 11): "'It is said that the proximity of punishment gives rise to real repentance in the criminal and sometimes arouses remorse in the most hardened heart; it is said to be chiefly due to fear." Thus, there is a psychological element to this novel, whether is approximates reality or not (I have my doubts that a lot of criminals really repent and show remorse, but that is neither here nor there).

The novel itself was important for Dostoyevsky since, as was not uncommon, he was in dire financial straits. He signed a contract to provide a serialization of the work to a literary publication. This is apparent at some points, when different parts of the novel may not fit together so well or when certain strands of discourse aren't fully developed.

The protagonist, Raskolnikov, faces a series of problems. For one thing, he is a student who faces dire poverty and has a difficult time just making ends meet. At another level, he has a sense that special human beings can be above the law and so on to do great deeds. These two factors plus others are interlinked to lead him to murder a pawnbroker to help gain enough money to survive. On being "superman," Raskolnikov says at one point (page 276): "I simply hinted that the `extraordinary' man has a right--not an officially sanctioned right, of course--to permit his conscience to step over certain obstacles, but only if it is absolutely necessary for the fulfillment of his idea on which possibly the welfare of all mankind may depend." And, in a following commentary (page 277): ". . .I maintain that all men who are not only great but a little out of the common. . .must by their very nature be criminals. . . ."

After committing the murder, he begins to come apart, as he suspects that people know of his deed. In another plot twist, after meeting a civil servant, Marmalodov, he comes to be attracted to his daughter, Sonya. He comes to confess to her of his deed. Later, he falls in love with her, but his imprisonment means that they would need to delay a life together. She follows him to Siberia, and the novel ends with hope for the future.

This is one of the great novels, no doubt. There are problems, as noted above, with the development of the story and with its ending (almost deus ex machine). Nonetheless, an interesting psychological analysis of the human mind. Still worth reading long after he completed writing it in 1866. Raskolnikov remains one of the great characters in literature, and his slow unraveling after the murder creates gripping drama.

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Top 5 of all time

Brilliant book. I just got done reading "Pillars of the Earth" and read the glowing reviews so I am writing this review just to get the bad taste out of my mouth.

Also, how can people give this book 1 star? Are you kidding. Please stick with television if you think this book is anything but sublime.

Crime and Punishment is Dostoevsky's masterpiece on the criminial mind, repentance and redemption in Tsarist Russia

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1880) is along with Count Leo Tolstoy the greatest Russian novelist His study of criminal mind is without peer in world literature.
"Crime and Punishment" (1866) is set in Saint Petersburg located on the Neva River near the Finnish border. This fog enshrouded capital of Peter the Great is the site of the murder story. A young, penniless former law student Rodion Raskolnikov is a scholastic dropout who spends his days in the squalor of a small apartment in the slums. He has been imbued with the philosophy of Nietzche and the nihilism which were popular beliefs nineteenth century Russian intellectual circles. Raskolnikov believes he is superior to the vast majority of humankind. To implement this hubristic stance he decides to kill a greedy pawnbroker. He kills the old lady and her sister with an ax. He robs them and believes he will never be punished for the crime.
In addition to this major story we meet Raskolnikov's sister who has been seduced by a rich aristocrat and is living at home with their mother. We also meet the saint-like Sonya a poor girl forced into prostitution as a means to feed her starving family. All of the major characters are undergoing poverty, illness and suffering through their tormented lives. Countless pages of the long novel deal with their various philosophies concerning life, the fate of Russia and the Christian gospel's relevance and importance in modern life.
The novel ends with hope as Raskolnikov repents of his crimes; is sentenced to eight years in Siberia and wins the love of the prostitute Sonya. Dostoevsky is adept at exploring the minid of his characters. His descriptions of St. Petersburg life are detailed bringing his tale to life.
This is a pyschological novel which has influenced the course of the introspective novel of the twentieth century. Dostoevsky had been banished to Siberia and understood human suffering perhaps better than any major novelist. It was refreshing to this reviewer that the novel is written from a Christian perspective giving sinners home for forgiveness through the grace of Jesus Christ.
Due to the long Russian names, the complicated plot and the number of characters the book is not an easy read. It is, however, worthy of your time and attention. Dostoevsky is an author well worth knowing. The book can be read and re-read throughout life with profit to the reader. It is a spiritual odyssesy through the rings of hell culminating in the joy experienced by earthly and heavenly love.

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A Complex Tale of Mind, Soul & Spiritual Redemption

The protagonist of this famous tale, Raskolnikov, has fallen to the depths of emotional and physical despair. Is there a way out of his abject poverty; a mind that will not shut off; his alcoholism; his fantasies of evil-acts, his utter Resentment of existence? In his mind, finally, there is hope, to bring his soul out from the gutter, an act of pure Will, that can lift him to a place where he is "meant" to be...and that is, pre-meditative Murder.

It can be dangerous reading Dostoevsky because, as a writer, he has that uncanny ability to put the reader's mind into the mind of his characters.

Reading Crime and Punishment, for me at least, had me agreeing with Raskolnikov, at times pushing him along to commit the act: commit murder because the writing had me truly believing that this most hidious act would bring him at least a glimmer of redemption. But, of course, after the 'act' (with an axe of all weapons), the guilt sets in and his life becomes even more a living hell. (Guilt is hell.)

The paranoia of getting caught reaches mammoth levels, and he cannot live in his own skin anymore; in his mind he now IS in living hell.

The protagonist finally admits to the crime and, comedically, (Dostoevsky's hate of any type of Russian bureaucracy) do not believe him!

The most horrific scenes in literature of all time, for me, is the beating, on a busy street in St. Petersburg, of a horse by its sadistic owner to its slow and painful death. A beating that would turn anyone into a rage...

This terrible image, so graphically written in detail, will remain with me forever.

Does Raskolnikov finally attain his sought after redemption?

There is something that changes within the man, but it is up to the individual reader to decide...one of the greatest books written in the twentieth century.

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An Immersion of the Soul

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, 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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