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Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Start date: July 1, 2017

Finish date: September 30, 2017

Discussion: Group Reads

Why we're reading this: Co-Winner - Big Read Poll - July through September2017

Winner of the THIS and THAT poll for December 2015
[close] Co-Winner - Big Read Poll - July through September2017

Winner of the THIS and THAT poll for December 2015

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What Members Thought

Sep 07, 2017 Brooklyn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: great-books-groupreads-completist

Praise the lord, Jesus - I finally finished this! Great book but the last 75-100 pages were hard to get through (might have helped that I stopped reading and picked up after vacation - Crime and Punishment is not for vacation). Great stuff - glad I read - would like to read in a class to fill in on the themes, background, psychology etc. I can see why Sigmund Freud loved Dostoyevsky. Also I read the Constance Garnet (sp?) translation which I found a little stuffy and might try a more recent tran ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 24, 2012 Janet rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Loved the psychological cat and mouse game that Porfiry Petrovich played with Raskolnikov in questioning(accusing) him about his crime.

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May 23, 2021 Naga Sravika Bodapati rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-before-die, classics, crime

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostyovesky

Rating 4/5

A classic book. Touted as one of the best works of Fyodor Dostyovesky, master of Russian literature. I was somehow not as moved or touched reading the story although it is quite different from regular crime/thriller books. Different in the sense that there is a crime committed but no real investigation or concrete evidence found to really implicate the culprit than pure theory and psychological analysis..

Getting into the story, Raskolnikov is Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostyovesky

Rating 4/5

A classic book. Touted as one of the best works of Fyodor Dostyovesky, master of Russian literature. I was somehow not as moved or touched reading the story although it is quite different from regular crime/thriller books. Different in the sense that there is a crime committed but no real investigation or concrete evidence found to really implicate the culprit than pure theory and psychological analysis..

Getting into the story, Raskolnikov is a law student who is very poor. Having no money he drops out of college and falls into a stuporous state of depression. He spends nights and days locked in his cubbyhole of a room eating nothing and constantly shifting in and out of delirious dreams. One day as though with no preformed/premeditated plan - he murders a rich old woman who is a cruel pawnbroker along with her sister. He almost gets caught during the act but chance helps him to escape. Although he steals her money,he hides it away under a stone in a remote location making little use of it.

By nature he is an extremely compassionate person to the point of giving away all his money to strangers and going hungry himself. So why did he do the murder? Is it an act of momentary insanity? Or was he lead to it by delusional higher ideals? No one would have ever found it out if he had not made some stupid moves like confessing to a police man (how stupid must he be really!?) and acting strange at the mention of the murder..so eventually a clever and astute police officer comes in the form of Porfiry Petrovich...and it's intriguing to read on how he leads to the truth to come out despite not showing any real evidence.. How the hero spends his time in prison repenting not for committing the crime ( no he has no guilt) but because he fell for the words of this detective..

Although there is hope for a better and brighter things to come for both Raskolnikov and Sonya at the end.. Given his nature of uncertain actions and impulsive behavior - we might have to read another book on their together if written!!🥱🥱🥱

Not a bad book altogether - just didn't feel the tension build up except at certain times..!! 😐 😐😐☺ ...more

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