‘To go wrong in one's own way is better then to go right in someone else's.’I have been giving a lot of thought to this novel lately. Despite the three years that have gone by since reading Crime and Punishment—three years in which I’ve read some outstanding literature, joined Goodreads and written just over 100 reviews of the books I’ve journeyed through—Dostoevsky’s novel still resides on it’s throne as my personal favorite novel. No other web of words, brushstrokes or music melody has ever struck me so deeply and consumed me so completely as this book did. The author’s collection of works as a whole has left such a mark on my soul that I felt it necessary to permanently affix his likeness on my arm. Over a century has passed since its initial publication, yet Dostoevsky’s message is still as poignant today as it was when it was first inked onto paper. Crime and Punishment features an immensely engaging blend of intrigue; philosophy; political, social, moral and religious commentary, that all thread together to create a masterpiece of literature that captures the deep, raw core of the human condition when it is at it’s most gruesome and vulnerable. The exquisite literary genius of the novel evoked a strong emotional resonance in me and the timing of my reading was just right to forever wed me to my love of books.Initially envisioned as two separate novels, one following the inner turmoil of a murderer and the other chronicling the melancholic destruction of a family due to a flighty, alcoholic patriarch, Dostoevsky deftly weaves together a multitude of unforgettable characters as they interplay through their tangle of plotlines. There are some incredible scenes that will forever haunt and delight me in my memory, such as the narrow escape from the scene of the crime which had me holding my breath in anxious anticipation, the darkly comical disaster of the funeral feast, or the emotionally charged and grim meeting between Dunya and the vile Svidrigaïlov. Each character is carefully balanced with their foil, each character is written with their own unique style of speech and language, and the novel seems to tie every thread together with such perfection and care as it churns forward, raining destruction on the lives of it’s characters to bring them toward their own personal redemption or demise. This was a book that I was unable to put down as the words flowed from their pages to deep within my heart. Dostoevsky brilliantly straps the reader to the emotional states of his characters and is able to create seamless transitions between scenes or from the minds of one character to the next by riding the wings of an emotion. Most often this emotion is guilt, and the murder scene and it’s feverish follow-up is so expertly crafted that the reader feels they must share in Raskolnikov’s guilty burden. During the course of reading this book, I was overwhelmed by a crushing sense of guilt that was disconnected to any of my own actions. Yet, had police officers confronted me at any given moment, I would have held out my hands in surrender since I was so burdened by the guilty residue of the novel. What further linked me to the book was Raskolnikov’s illness following his crime. Maybe it wasn’t the novel taking root in my soul, perhaps it was due to the cold fall weather that was creeping in at the time, or perhaps it was due to my lack of sleep and early rising to embark on 10-12hr shifts in an unheated factory where I would work away amidst a cloud of aluminum dust, but I felt feverish and ill alongside Raskolnikov and his fever dreams. I don’t think I felt well again until after finishing the book.I believe I read Crime and Punishment at the ideal moment in my life. I had spent the summer going through several of Dostoevsky’s other novels and falling madly in love with his writing. Then my whole life was uprooted. At the time I began C&P, I had moved across the state away from all my friends, family, and everything I knew and recognized, to live in Holland with my brand new baby daughter and work in a factory that could easily serve for a modern day sequel to Sinclair’s The Jungle. Looking back, I think I can see why I so easily soaked up Raskolnikov’s feelings. Dostoevsky shows how we are a product of our choices, and it is how we deal with our consequences that makes us who we are. I was placed in the new situation because of choices I had made, like choosing to skip class to smoke and read by the river, and Raskolnikov was faced with the guilt of his own actions. It was the most dramatic shift in my life and I am not a person who enjoys change, yet here I was without a familiar face and nobody to talk to. Crime and Punishment was there in my hand every morning and night as I walked between my home and car, like a friend holding my hand to comfort and encourage me in my exhaustion. It rode shotgun on my hour commutes like a faithful companion, and was the friendly face in which I could take refuge in on my breaks. When stripped of all I knew, there was literature to keep me sane and give me something to hold on to as my world spiraled out of control around me (my daughter was also a tether of sanity for me, but fatherhood was still new and intimidating at the time). Dostoevsky and his beautiful words became my friend and my passion, and in my solitude (because, let’s face it, I was very much an oddball in that factory and it took awhile to find my place there) I plunged myself deep into books, something I am very thankful for and feel that all the strangeness and loneliness of the existence is washed away by the glow I feel from grappling with my favorite authors. Then I discovered Goodreads and you all became incredibly dear to me. I don’t think I would have survived my time in that dark pit without you all, so, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.I apologize that this isn’t really much of a review, I’m very excited for this review, as it was seeing this GR friend—one of which I hold in the highest regard and am always incredibly impressed by—reading Crime and Punishment that brought back a flood of memories of my times with the book as if I were Proust with his madeleines. I highly recommend this novel, and firmly stand by my choice of it as my favorite. Recently, I had to make a list for work of my top 5 favorite books, which was difficult to do, damn near impossible, but I realized how simple it was to put a book down in the #1 slot. I have read some incredible books since, Hunger (my love of which stems from the similarities to Dostoevsky I noticed in the book), Gravity’s Rainbow, or To the Lighthouse to name a few, yet nothing has ever left as deep of an impact on me as a reader and as a human being as this book. This is a fantastic book about the human spirit, about our deepest, darkest impulses, and shows that our own inner consciousness can dish out a far greater punishment than any legal system can. Now I need to sleep and sober up.5/5‘ I did not bow down to you, I bowed down to all the suffering of humanity.’
از معدود کتاب هایی که بعد از پایان بردنش،احساس خاصی نداشتمراستش نمیتوانم کتاب را بد یا خوب بنامماگر بد بود چگونه توانستم کتاب را تا آخر بخوانممن که تجربه پرت کردن کتاب یک عاشقانه آرام نادر ابراهیمی پس از خواندن ده صفحه را داشتم؛)و اگر خوب بود چرا از لذت خواندنش مست نمیشدم؟..... از آن دسته کتاب هایی نبود که بعد خواندنش، بگم که درونم مملو از دانستن و بار سنگینی بر دانسته های قبلی ام افزوده شد اما چیزی فوق العاده از استاد داستایوفسکی یاد گرفتمسعی در دیدن چیزها، ورای ظاهر عادی شانکتاب سبکی کاملا متفاوتی با آثار دیگر نویسندگانی که قبلا خوانده بودم داشت درونگرایی محض بود و بیشتر نقب به درون آدمها میزند اما پرحرفی شخصیت ها که کاملا متضاد با درونگرایی است، حوصله آدم را هر گاه و بیگاه از سر می بردنکته دیگر این که داستایوفسکی بخاطر خجالتی بودنش نتوانسته بود روی هیچکدام از مردم سن پطرزبورگ را زمین بزند و همه این دوستان عزیز را وارد داستان کرده بود:)داستایوفسکی علاقه زیادی به روانکاوی در داستان هایش داردو در این کتاب با کنایه از این می گوید که چرا این علم مورد تمسخر قرار می گیرد و هنوز از آن استفاده نمی شود وی در این داستان،انسان را به دو نوع فرا عادی و عادی تقسیم میکندمقاله رودیا،قسمت هایی از نظریه تکامل را در خودش دارداینکه آدمهای ویژه حق دارند بنا به مصلحت خودشان جان مردم عادی را بگیرندمثال ناپلئون را می زند که نابغه بود و دریای خون به راه انداختاین نظریه در خور تاملی استنمیدانم درست است یا غلطولی مطمئنا باعث کشته شدن افراد زیادی شده است و می شودچون هرکسی خود را ویژه میداند و جان هزاران نفر بخطر می افتدهمه باید تفنگ به دست و کارد بدست آماده دفاع از خود باشیم که نکنداین چنین آدمی پیدا شود و ما را عادی بپنداردیادم رفت خدای ناکرده و گوش شیطان هم هزار بار کَر را بگویم:)
What do You think about Crime And Punishment (2002)?
Crime and Punishment is one of those quintessential classics that every reader of literature knows they must read at some point in their life. There is a clear reason for this, for Crime and Punishment is one of the greatest novels of its type in existence that I have encountered.There are certain types of authors who seem to understand various issues better than others. Charles Dickens for instance, is the example of an author who understands the pressures of life and the ways in which society can tread upon individual freedoms in the pursuit of wealth. Similarly, many of the great Russian authors seem to understand suffering and poverty like few other authors can. But where a man like Anton Chekhov utilises the simplicity of language to devastating effect, Fyodor Dostoyevsky wields his pen to talk about suffering on a holistic level.In essence, Crime and Punishment is perhaps the greatest example of how to write a novel about psychological suffering. For within the novel you have the great cat and mouse game between detective and criminal, yet it is the mind of the criminal of which we are aware. We see his uncertain reasoning regarding the murderous act. We see his insecurity regarding his family and their romantic endeavours. We see his apparent confidence reduced to a series of internal struggles and we see him struggle to maintain a human façade when faced with inquisitive interrogators. In so many ways, the whole act is built up, stage by stage, to show in devastating clarity a criminal who does not believe himself to be a criminal.Do we not all justify ourselves and our lives every time we are challenged? Who among humanity would willingly and happily accede that they are a criminal, or guilty of a wrong act - a kind of treachery? Very few would, and those that would we would name as insane in some manner. Therefore to see the main character, Raskolnikov, go through such a process of reinterpreting, re-evaluating and re justifying his deeds, is to gain an insight into the act of being human. And that is a terrifyingly brilliant thing.There is something other than the psychological intrigue which plays across this book. To the open reader there are many religious and spiritual themes regarding the existence of god, the afterlife and what it is to be mortal. Raskolnikov at points, clearly denies a belief in any god and this lines up with the pantomime he lives out in everyday society. For to accept that any god could exist is to accede that he has committed a crime not merely to society but against a human soul and therefore against a godly creator. However, the story of Lazarus, the man raised from the dead, becomes a kind of metaphor in this story, for the spiritual condition of Raskolnikov and at the conclusion of Dostoyevsky's narrative there are signs that Raskolnikov's spiritual life is being resurrected.In the end Dostoyevsky's work is so multifaceted that it may take several readings and re-readings to get just a small hint of what he suggests in it. The fact that this is such an open novel is what makes it a great work of fiction and one I am certain to return to in my lifetime for new insights. This review is now also up on Booklikes: http://headspinningfromvagueness.book...
—Jonathan
"It began with the socialist doctrine. You know their doctrine; crime is a protest against the abnormality of the social organisation and nothing more, and nothing more; no other causes admitted."Dostevesky begins by very slowly painting a dark world full of poverty and hopelessness. The the story moves very slowly, v...e...r...y s...l..o..w...l..y in the first two parts. I actually lost the number of times Rashkilonov fell ill during the book. His psychology and morality being the main subject of the book. Then there is fact that each character has three names.R. is a good man - a man of golden heart. He doesn't believe he has done anything wrong but is greatly depressed by his condition. He knew after once he got his education, it would be far easier to manage his finaces- it was a question of those first steps which were difficult. "A special little theory came in too—a theory of a sort—dividing mankind, you see, into material and superior persons, that is persons to whom the law does not apply owing to their superiority, who make laws for the rest of mankind, the material, that is...."Socrates once said nobody knowingly commits a wrong. Logic though is a slave to passion which in turn is influenced by circumstances. Now R. was living in miserable circumstances, was greatly intelligent and was worried about poverty of his family. He was an atheist and thus his morality doesn't have divine backing: There are no sacred traditions amongst us, especially in the educated class.His extreme sulkiness doesn't help either. Thus when he saw a social parasite of a women - his hatred would have made him believe that she doesn't deserve to live. Till the very end. he was convinced that in killing her he had actually done a great social service and nothing convince him otherwise. This is what, he argued, a great soul in his position would do. His belief in this line of reasoning is so genuine, he actually wrote an article on the subject. This is where extremity of reason can take us to. " what affected him was that a great many men of genius have not hesitated at wrongdoing, but have overstepped the law without thinking about it. He seems to have fancied that he was a genius too—that is, he was convinced of it for a time."... or, as Mario Puzo puts it, "Behind Every successful man, there is a crime."R's extreme rationalism stands in deep contrast with Sonia's morality mainly derived from religious values. If you keep to old roads you are not likely to be lost (but you won't find anything better either). There are many other interesting things I would not detail (was Dounia tempted by Svidrigalov's offer? How come later deal with his crimes better than R did?) but in a nutshell its a great read. Its a masterpiece with a whole world inside.
—Sidharth Vardhan
Where to possibly begin? I feel both intimidated and compelled to write something, anything about this 144 year-old pinnacle of literature. What more could I add that hasn’t already been said, probably nothing. And still I feel I must write down my immediate thoughts if for no other reason than to show respect.So far C&P is my first and only foray into Dostoevsky. It will certainly not be my last. His writing seems to contain everything. Every perspective, every thought, every emotion, at le
—tim
