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Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Start date: April 1, 2018

Finish date: June 30, 2018

Discussion: The Hefty Classics

Why we're reading this: 2nd in the Poll with 33 votes! (15/05/2016 - 14/06/2016)
[close] 2nd in the Poll with 33 votes! (15/05/2016 - 14/06/2016)

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Mar 18, 2023 Shirley (stampartiste) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics-500-plus-pages, published-1899-and-earlier, read-classics, to-read-in-2023

The story takes place in Russia in 1865, four years after Tsar Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861. It was primarily a state of haves and have nots. The haves were mostly made up of low and mid level administrative workers and a few entrepreneurs. The have nots were those who were crushed by their poverty and sometimes resorted to unsavory activities to support themselves and their families. Characters in Crime and Punishment represented both sides of the spectrum.

The main character in this s The story takes place in Russia in 1865, four years after Tsar Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861. It was primarily a state of haves and have nots. The haves were mostly made up of low and mid level administrative workers and a few entrepreneurs. The have nots were those who were crushed by their poverty and sometimes resorted to unsavory activities to support themselves and their families. Characters in Crime and Punishment represented both sides of the spectrum.

The main character in this story is a young, poor, former student by the name of Rodya (Rodion) Raskolnikov. Rather than try to find honest means of support, like his good friend Dmitri Razumihin, Raskolnikov dwells on his poverty, the unfairness of it, and his assessment of himself as a man who, like Napoleon, can do and get whatever he wants. Because Raskolnikov was so unlikeable, I found this story a difficult read at times. I continually read of Raskolnikov’s eventual redemption in various reviews and analyses, but I just don’t agree with that, when Raskolnikov only started thinking of others in the last page and a half of the story. I wasn’t ready to so quickly accept his epiphany. Along the way, he had hurt way too many people.

So many of the characters could be listed under two columns: Truly Good People and Truly Bad People. Some, like Arkady Svidrigailov and Pyotr Luzhin, were truly despicable. I have never read the book, but Lolita definitely came to mind when reading about Svidrigailov. These two characters definitely deserved their “punishment” (or just desserts, as it were).

I was thankful that Dostoyevsky included truly good people like Razumihin and Dounia Raskolnikov, Sonya Marmeladov and Nastasya Petrovna, three important women in Raskolnikov’s life. Their selflessness and steadfastness served to counterbalance the oppression of this story.

Dostoyevsky left me with the impression that he viewed life as hard, joyless and hopeless. A later reading about his life made me understand why he felt this way and why there was so much despair in this story. The two (author and novel) are intertwined. ...more

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