Crime and Punishment
question
When does it start getting good?
SusannaW
Sep 16, 2011 09:36AM
Ok, I finally decided to give Dostoevsky a go. I love 19th Century lit and love Balzac & Zola. I had such high hopes for C&P... but a few chapters in and I'm bored stiff.
At the moment it feels like social realism without much narrative pace or innovation. Is it going to get better or should I try another of Dostoevsky's? If you've read it, at what point in the 'story' did you get hooked?
At the moment it feels like social realism without much narrative pace or innovation. Is it going to get better or should I try another of Dostoevsky's? If you've read it, at what point in the 'story' did you get hooked?
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I do not think that there is hope for someone who reads Balzac. Maybe you need to read Gogol first, or even some Russian history. Not sure, for it is a great book.
Perhaps you should have started reading Dostoyevsky with "The Idiot". Its easier to get into and the protagoniost is a much more sympathetic character...
I liked it when the dialogue started, but it was interesting from the start. I guess that I just really wanted to read it, so I did.
Books like C and P require a bit of work, an investment if you will. It was like this for me. But it paid off big time. This isn´t fast food (unlike this post!)
I first read C & P when I was twelve [yes, precocious brat] and it was hard going at first but in later re-readings I realized that most of the 'boring' opening chapters were setting the scene so that when the crime does happen you see it in context rather than as the act of a simple thief or psychopath. In that sense the slow beginning is not just in the style of the era, it is absolutely necessary. One of my favourite books of all time.
I got hooked almost immediately, got dragged in with demonic force, and could not stop until i was finished.
My first reaction to this question: IT DOESN'T.
But I read this in high school (10 years ago).
I want to re-read and give a better answer.
But I read this in high school (10 years ago).
I want to re-read and give a better answer.
It's filled with suspense from beginning to end. The most frustrating part is that he could have gone away with murder, literally, but his own conscience gave him away. He should've kept his mouth shut.
You know the saying "life is hard & then you die"? This book was like that for me. I needed Zoloft just to get through the book.
I must admit - I read it for two years, did not want to give up... although it was when I had a really difficult situation in my life, so that might be why I couldnt really concentrate. IMO it is almost the same throughout, a solid 3 - don't understand a bigger fuss about it, but maybe I am just not intellectual enough ;)))))
