Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Read in January, 2005
recommends it for:
ANYONE
This book to me is probably the central work of the Christianity-based wing of the literary existentialist movement. What I find to be so wonderful about it is that it has made fashionable so many of the central literary techniques employed in twentieth century literary existentialism (especially in the cases of Kafka, Nick Cave and, to a lesser extent, the surrealists as well). It has fantastic use of character development as a tool towards showing the evolution not only the human character und...more
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recommends it for:
not a soul
"داستایوسکی از نویسندگان معدودی است که یا بسیار محبوب یا منفور خوانندگان خویش است. شدت افکار و اعمال و احساسات او با خوی همگان سازگار نیست و به همین دلیل برخی او را شقی و شوم مریض می پندارند و آثارش را به خصوص برای مطالعه ی نوجوانان و اشخاص ناپخته و ضعیف مضر و ناروا می دانند. ...more
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Read in May, 1998
recommends it for:
Those that love psychologically driven books, with a deeper underlying philosophy
Dostoevsky’s "Crime and Punishment" and "Notes from Underground" are his most popular and famous works. And deservedly so. Dostoevsky’s "Brothers Karamazov", on the other hand, is his most critically acclaimed work- regarded by many as the best novel ever written. And deservedly so.
While "Brothers Karamazov" is Dostoevsky’s longest, but also best, most subtle, and complex work, Crime and Punishment and "Notes from Underground" are shor...more
While "Brothers Karamazov" is Dostoevsky’s longest, but also best, most subtle, and complex work, Crime and Punishment and "Notes from Underground" are shor...more
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Read in January, 2005
My second-favorite book, after Notes From Underground. The storytelling is captivating. The characterization of life in St. Petersburg is superb, and the final two dream sequences color the narrative with an ethereal passion unlike anything else I've read.
If you read this book, you'll see why Dostoyevsky is among the greatest writers. Besides the narration, the dialog, too, is engrossing. Most of the action unfolds over four days, so the timing is compressed. Adding to the tension, the a...more
If you read this book, you'll see why Dostoyevsky is among the greatest writers. Besides the narration, the dialog, too, is engrossing. Most of the action unfolds over four days, so the timing is compressed. Adding to the tension, the a...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
anyone willing to invest time for a worthwhile read
I haven't quite decided how I feel about this book. I decided to read it simply because I knew it was a classic and that it was about a man who killed his landlord. I thought that was a rather risque plotline for a classic, so I was intrigued and thus compelled to read it. Although that isn't a very substantial reason for deciding to read a book, it turned out well for me--I really liked it. At times the plotline can be tautological, and the Russian names are definately hard to manage if you don...more
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Read in April, 2008
Finally made it through a book by one of the big Russian guys. I mostly object to the idea of reading because I feel like I'm 'supposed to,' but I have heard enough genuinely enthusiastic reviews from friends about Dostoevsky and Tolstoy that I figured that I should really persevere.
I have tried and failed at Anna Karenin, Brothers Karamazov, War and Peace...I now blame life circumstances outside the pages of those books...too distracted, working too hard, couldn't stay awake, didn't have the...more
I have tried and failed at Anna Karenin, Brothers Karamazov, War and Peace...I now blame life circumstances outside the pages of those books...too distracted, working too hard, couldn't stay awake, didn't have the...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
anyone
A powerful novel; I almost don't know what to say, as I've just finished it and am tired~and I know already that I need to re-read it. About 1/3 to 1/2-way through I actually had to stop reading it, and put it aside for nearly 2 weeks, b/c the atmosphere became stifling in its psychological horror. Raskolnikov sometimes seemed a real Gollum, whom you want to throw your arms around one moment, and run away from the next, a bundle of contradictions ~ and yet what a character~ his image in my min...more
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Read in October, 2007
Seri klasik karya pengarang Rusia ini diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Inggris oleh Constance Garnett, dan diringkas secara populer oleh Alice Tek Eyck.
Nah aku baca yang terjemahannya seri populer ini.
Bernuansa muram abad ke-18 di St. Petersburg. di kota dengan semua masalah politik dan ekonomi (kemelaratan). bercerita tentang konflik batin (jiwa, kesepian, kemiskinan, dan cinta) yang dialami oleh seorang mahasiswa drop out bernama Raskolnikov - dimana dengan semua tekanan tidak bisa melanjutka...more
Nah aku baca yang terjemahannya seri populer ini.
Bernuansa muram abad ke-18 di St. Petersburg. di kota dengan semua masalah politik dan ekonomi (kemelaratan). bercerita tentang konflik batin (jiwa, kesepian, kemiskinan, dan cinta) yang dialami oleh seorang mahasiswa drop out bernama Raskolnikov - dimana dengan semua tekanan tidak bisa melanjutka...more
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Read in May, 2008
What I enjoyed about this book, and thought Dostoevsky did well, was exploring philosophical ideas and social movements without coming off as too didactic (cough cough Upton Sinclar cough cough). I wish I knew more about Petersburg during this era because I feel like I could get a lot more out of the novel with some more background information (although, for what book is this not true?). I thought that the reading of Lazarus scene between Sonya and Raskolnikov was totally awesome. I also really ...more
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
philosophers and people interested in russian novels
most people i know don't enjoy the russian novels. they read them because these books are renowned to be excellent treatises on morality and religion and ethics. they read them for the same reason that i always read greek classics. because you feel that as a reader, you're supposed to read them. if that is the way you are (and you know who you are if this is the case) regarding russian novels, then don't read crime and punishment. don't read this book because you feel you're supposed to, or...more
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I read this in high school and still remeber being moved by it. Watching Raskolnikov's guilt frive him mad was fascinating. The tale of how love and asking for forgiveness can set you free was such a powerful metaphor for how God loves and forgives us.
I copied a review of the book b/c it's been a while and I didn't want to forget telling you something key.
The novel portrays the murder of a miserly, aged pawnbroker and her younger sister by a destitute Saint Petersburg student named Rasko...more
I copied a review of the book b/c it's been a while and I didn't want to forget telling you something key.
The novel portrays the murder of a miserly, aged pawnbroker and her younger sister by a destitute Saint Petersburg student named Rasko...more
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Read in June, 2006
i tackled this one after i notched the brothers on my belt, finishing it on the shore of some random river in amsterdam. i wasn't too let down with this one either. i found myself quite enthralled by his psychological ramblings throughout and decided, because i think you need to decide, to care about all of the side things that seem to be distracting out fearful hero and you as the reader. of course it has a very different narrative style then im used to, but it all has a purpose, well a purp...more
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I'm not sure whether it is perfectly honest of me to say that I liked this book. The plotline of the book is torturously tedious, and the narrative is marred by the convoluted language and style (some of which I'm sure comes from the era, and some of which I'm sure comes from the fact that it's been translated). If you can manage to convince yourself to be dragged through an obscenely agonizing amount of self-recrimination and ethical/existential angst to get to the potentially intriguing ethi...more
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Read in December, 2007
A lot of people don't seem like Russian Literature. I guess it probably takes some getting used to. 19th Century Russian writers don't seem to write the novels that we're used to reading. They're often quite long, and sometimes difficult to keep reading; but like many novels that have endured the passing decades, I've found this one to reward the effort.
In Crime and Punishment Dostoevsky stabs you at the beginning, sticks his finger in the wound and twists it slowly for the rest of the n...more
In Crime and Punishment Dostoevsky stabs you at the beginning, sticks his finger in the wound and twists it slowly for the rest of the n...more
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Read in February, 2008
I finally read it! This was a book I had been putting off for a while. I would have liked to have tackled it in a class, with a little more discussion and criticism than that which I came to by way of Google, but it was still a great book, no matter how much I may have missed. Raskolnikov is at first an unrelatable character, disorderly and off-putting, but as the story progresses he becomes a picaresque hero of sorts, and no matter the reader's reaction to the murder which sets the story in m...more
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Read in January, 1997
recommends it for:
anybody!
I read this book in AP English my senior year of high school, and I've read it probably 8 times since then. It follows in the tradition of a lot of existential novels that aren't necessarily plot-heavy but filled with such copious amounts of emotional torment that they really require a nap after reading.
I found the antagonist, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov (gotta love the name) to be altogether repugnant and charismatic. In such a faraway place and a long-ago time, the thoughts and feeli...more
I found the antagonist, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov (gotta love the name) to be altogether repugnant and charismatic. In such a faraway place and a long-ago time, the thoughts and feeli...more
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Read in May, 2003
recommends it for:
those teetering on the edge
I believe Cypress Hill said it best when they said "Here is one thing you can't understand...how I could just kill a man."
So true, so true.
That is, until reading this book.
I'm not a communist, nor do I think very highly of Russia, what with their tundras, meltdowns, and backwards R's. Not to mention their furry hats. I get it, it's cold, but really, you just look goofy in that hat. Did you ever see that episode of Cops-In Moscow? Exactly.
I also think people who th...more
So true, so true.
That is, until reading this book.
I'm not a communist, nor do I think very highly of Russia, what with their tundras, meltdowns, and backwards R's. Not to mention their furry hats. I get it, it's cold, but really, you just look goofy in that hat. Did you ever see that episode of Cops-In Moscow? Exactly.
I also think people who th...more
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Halelujah, I finally finished! This book has one of the most satisfactory endings I have read in a while. I finished it less than two minutes ago, and I feel quite uplifted!
Few books delve so deep into the workings of the human mind, soul, and spirit as do any of Fyodor Dostoevsky's great novels. Being a counseling major, I particularly enjoyed the psychological study that plays out through the story of Crime and Punishment.
There is much to be learned in these pages about the nature of si...more
Few books delve so deep into the workings of the human mind, soul, and spirit as do any of Fyodor Dostoevsky's great novels. Being a counseling major, I particularly enjoyed the psychological study that plays out through the story of Crime and Punishment.
There is much to be learned in these pages about the nature of si...more
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Dostoyevsky expands on his own Notes from Underground and Poe’s “Tell Tale Heart” to bring this epic of decaying psyches, suicides, fever dreams, visions of fires, floods, and diseases, ghosts, scripture quoting drunks, saintly prostitutes, and demented messiahs; all wrapped up with his idiosyncratic Christian existentialism and gallows humor. Yes, philosophers, filmmakers, and other writers (especially Camus’ The Stranger and Hamsun’s Hunger) have taken the themes of this book and rep...more
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Read in January, 1998
I love this book, and even yes... the ending. To accept that this was not a deus ex machina ending it is important to see the time and scope that this was written in. Firstly the mid 1800's was a time of modernization, much of this book is written as a struggle between the old and the new modes of though. This modern reform was a product of Alexander II and his reform was that of the free peasant and the liberal intellectual. Dostoyevsky was writing in the beginnings of communist Russian tho...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 4.21 (14986 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 4.28 (431 ratings) number of reviews: 1296popular shelves
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quote
""What do you think?" shouted Razumihin, louder than ever, "you think I am attacking them for talking nonsense? Not a bit! I like them to talk nonsense. That's man's one privilege over all creation. Through error you come to the truth! I am a man because I err! You never reach any truth without making fourteen mistakes and very likely a hundred and fourteen. And a fine thing, too, in its way; but we can't even make mistakes on our own account! Talk nonsense, but talk your own nonsense, and I'll kiss you for it. To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's. In the first case you are a man, in the second you're no better than a bird. Truth won't escape you, but life can be cramped. There have been examples. And what are we doing now? In science, development, thought, invention, ideals, aims, liberalism, judgment, experience and everything, everything, everything, we are still in the preparatory class at school. We prefer to live on other people's ideas, it's what we are used to! Am I right, am I right?" cried Razumihin, pressing and shaking the two ladies' hands."