Selected Book
Crime and Punishment
- Paperback
- Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Publisher: Vintage
- Release Date: March 1993
- ISBN-10: 0679734503
- ISBN-13: 9780679734505
- List Price: $15.95
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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryWith the same suppleness, energy, and range of voices that won their translation of The Brothers Karamazov the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize, Pevear and Volokhonsky offer a brilliant translation of Dostoevsky's classic novel that presents a clear insight into this astounding psychological thriller. "The best (translation) currently available"--Washington Post Book World. |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Dosty Dings Objectivism
Rating:
Welcome to the glittering world of dyschronic post-modernist criticism, which has enabled me to recognize that 'Crime and Punishment', published in 1866, was written as a prescient refutation of the Objectivist philosophy expressed in Ayn Rand's novels 'The Fountainhead' and 'Atlas Shrugged'. Without the wonder of dyschronicity, we'd have to mention that 'Atlas Shrugged' wasn't published until 1957 and Ayn Rand wasn't born until 1905. However, surely the fact that Dostoyevsky and Rand died almost exactly 100 years apart will be recognized as a signifier.
The most cogent advocate of Randian Objectivism in 'C&P' is the scurvy Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin, the suitor for Dunya's hand, who speaks for himself in his first face-to-face encounter with Raskolnikov: "Love yourself before all others," he says, " for everything in the world is founded on self-interest. If you love only yourself, you will conduct your enterprises in a proper manner..." and by implication, good things will trickle down to the rest of us. As the most single-minded Objectivist, please note, Luzhin is the only character in the novel who is unambiguously a swine. Even the erratic, half-crazy Svidrigailov falls short of perfect obedience to Randian morality, compromising the order of things by last-minute acts of charity.
The scene in the tavern, early in the novel, when Raskolnikov overhears other young 'intellectuals' discussing the logic of justifying a 'crime' by weighing it against the heroic benefits that may result from its success - to whit, the murder of the old-lady usurer in order to gain the capital to achieve a great destiny, the very crime Raskolnikov has been meditating - is not only a parallel to scenes in Rand's work, but it is, I swear, exactly word-for-word a transcript of a discussion I heard in a Harvard dining hall in 1963 between David Friedman (the anarcho-capitalist son of Milton Friedman) and some friends, and that conversation, believe it or not, was repeated verbatim at a drinking session in the Bohemian Grove in 1982, the speakers being Dick Cheney and acquaintances. Remarkable, I'd say! The convergence of libertarianism and neo-liberalism (aka neo-conservatism) is to be found in Ayn Rand.
Hostile as Raskolnikov is the the scurrilous Luzhin, his own ethical premises, as expressed in the article he had written months before the action of the novel, are also pure Objectivism. "...an extraordinary person has a right... not an official right of course, but a private one, to allow his conscience to step across certain obstacles, and then only if the execution of his idea, which may be the salvation of all mankind, requires it." For the benefit of anyone who hasn't actually read 'Crime and Punishment', the entire 700 page novel is constructed to teach Raskolnikov the error of his assumptions, so that by the time he reaches Siberia he can accept the humble Sonya's notions of suffering and redemption. Yes, readers, I warn you that Dostoyevsky's answer to Objectivism, and to proto-communism for that matter, is... oh, you'd best read it for yourself.
One thing I didn't notice, the first time I read C&P some 50 years ago, was how entertaining it is. That's right, entertaining! What a gallery of vivid characters! What a sensory feast of description, albeit chiefly description of filth, poverty, and depravity! What scorching, sardonic wit with which the principal characters taunt each other! Long and dark it is, but C&P is also an elegantly constructed fiction, a book that was immediately 'popular' and has deservedly stayed popular. Why, Ayn Rand herself declared it to be one of the novels that most influenced her, though that can be taken as evidence that Ms. Rand wasn't a particularly insightful reader. The only portion of the novel which fails, IMHO, is the epilogue, and I have an explanation for the problem; the Tsarist secret police compelled Dostoyevsky's editor to falsify a semi-happy ending in epilogue format as a condition for allowing the publication of such a dire portrayal of Russian life.
Compare C&P, if you will, with English novels of the mid 19th Century - Dickens, Trollope, Eliot, Gaskell. The English are all about manners and mores. The Russia of C&P was a world of philosophical and social ferment, far more 'modern' in its intellectual daring. I'm not sure the average Anglo-American reader has caught up yet.
A true masterpiece
Rating:
When I first opened this book I was afraid, afraid because of how big a classic it is, because I'd never read Dostoevsky before and because there was the faint possibility of me not liking it.
All my trepidation was unjustified, on this wonderfully conceived masterpiece, Dostoevsky shows how great a storyteller he is, building a wide range of characters that are both complex and real, displaying great insight into human nature and meticulously developing and carrying the plot to its climax.
But it's not perfect, but, then again, nothing is, the mostly lengthy and wordy dialogs feel more like a collection of monologues, than, well, dialogs, which is, although Dostoevsky manages to keep a constant tension to the bulk of them, a little irritating and unrealistic.
Awesome Insight into the mind and heart of a criminal
Rating:
This is an awesome book! It is not an easy read, but it rewards close reading. It's about a struggling Russian college student named Raskolnikov, who decides to kill a certain old moneylender (and a nearby witness) just to see if he can get away with it, and also to take her valuables so that he can cash them in at a later time.
But he is haunted by feelings of guilt and paranoia. His faithful friends and family are unaware of his heinous crimes. They shower the sickly Raskolnikov with unconditional love and acceptance, and it makes him even sicker with guilt. He can hardly keep from discussing the crimes with others, and it rouses the suspicions of the police.
The book is more or less a commentary on Psalm 32, with its timeless expression of guilt and release. It is also a commentary on the Lazarus story of John chapter 11 from the New Testament.
The book puts you inside the mind and heart of a criminal, and it will stay with you long after the last page is read. One of the greatest books of all time.
Masterful work, worthy of every accolade it's received, and worthy of accolades it has yet to receive....
Rating:
So let me ask a question in a primitive, modern way...
Is this damn thing any good? Uh, yeah.
Fyodor's novel is called one of the greatest ever written for a reason. It is a masterful work, filled with suspense, fascinating characters, great atmosphere, intelligent dialogue, twists and turns, and a great, satisfying ending. It is a true cerebral novel, one that really emulates Dostoyevsky's outlook on life and art itself. Raskolnikov is one of the most fascinating, well known characters in all of literature, and even to this day, he is still talked about and discussed. This book, along with Notes from the Underground, are my favorite Dostoyevsky novels.
I also love this book because it shreds the idea of Nietzsche's "superman" ideal. Many have grossly misinterpreted Dostoyevsky's attitude towards Raskolnikov. Some make the argument that he is a model of the Nietzschian superman. Raskolnikov certainly acts like the "superman", thinking that since he has a superior intellect that that entitles him to, essentially, shred off the chains of the morality that governs others, and that he is free to do what he wishes, as the laws of "lesser men" don't apply to him. Fyodor, however, does not agree with this and shows that it is a false assumption that intelligent people make when they believe they are superior to anyone. We can argue the wider point that the Nietzschian superman isn't a superman at all, but an arrogant, deluded man who puts himself above everyone because he believes he is superior to everyone. Raskolnikov is exactly like this, until reality and Sonia make him realise that he isn't the Superman at all, just another human being, and a deeply human one at that. I believe many people who interpret Dostoyevsky as "pro-Superman" (in the Nietzsche sense, not the Marvel Comics one) are simply putting their own personal beliefs on Dostoyevsky's prose, and are not looking at the novel with clear and thoughtful eyes.
This is a wonderful novel, one of the greatest ever written, and one that can be revisited again and again.
One of my favorites
Rating:
I don't think any book creates the inner tension like this one. This and Brothers Karamzov are must reads of FD.
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