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Summary: Dostoyevsky At His Best
Review: Dostoyevsky probed more deeply into the mind than any other novelist, especially into the abnormal and criminal mind. This novel explores Raskolnikov, a student, driven to neurotic frenzy by his powerlessness to change the injustices of the world, describes to demonstrate the freedom of his soul by a single gratuitous act of murder. Instead of being liberated, however, he is enslaved by his own guilt feelings, and the book describes, in a remorseless and clinical way, the disintegration of his personality. The part of his "conscience" is embodied in Inspector Petrovich, who harries him, goads and cajoles him to admit his guilt and so to purge his soul. Dostoyevsky was fascinated by people driven to extreme behaviour by despair or lack of external moral guidance. This is shown especially by Raskolnikov, the central character of "Crime and Punishment", making himself a moral outsider by committing murder. An insightful book indeed and a book that makes you think.
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Summary: The Inhuman Man
Review: One of the great aspects of Dostoevsky's novel is his exploration of man's ego and his consciousness conflicting with it. Raskolnikov, like many other men, thinks he is some kind of a god, or at least he is trying to be. At the same time, his human side is fighting with it. I think Dostoevsky is trying to say man is born pure, and no mattter how god-like he thinks he is, the innocent side, the ethical side will slowly eat at him and make him human.
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Summary: Heart of Darkness
Review: Set in Russia in the midst of its troubled transition to the modern age, this classic novel is the profound human drama of Raskolnikov, a sensitive intellectual driven by poverty and the belief of his exemption from moral law. Through his unforgettable gallery of characters, Dostoyevsky provides a provocative look at the human motivations of obsession and possession with unflinching philosophical and moral insight. A masterpiece of dramatic literature by one of the greatest novelist of all time. Crime and Punishment is the story of a murder committed on principle, of a killer who wishes by his action to set himself outside and above society. A novel of great physical and psychological tension, pervaded by Dostoevsky's sinister evocation of St Petersburg, it also has moments of wild humour. Dostoevsky's own harrowing experiences mark the novel. He had himself undergone interrogation and trial, and was condemned to death, a sentence commuted at the last moment to penal servitude. In prison he was particularly impressed by one hardened murderer who seemed to have attained a spiritual equilibrium beyond good and evil: yet witnessing the misery of other convicts also engendered in Dostoevsky a belief in the Christian idea of salvation through suffering. END
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Summary: My Favorite Novel of All Time
Review: I love Dostoevsky, which is something of a curse. I read Crime and Punishment 13 years ago, and have spent the following years looking for something akin to this book.Dostoevsky has the rare gift of not just writing; but truly entering the mind of his subjects; every psychological nuance. Every fear; the paranoia, guilt, hatred, persecutiion, and angst of tortured souls (Maybe it was his stay in Siberia that shaped him). Everyone should read this book. It's an open letter about the human condition. Then read The Brothers Karamozov; then The Idiot. It's not happy reading. It's literature with soul. Someday I'll find a writer this good. Until then, I'll keep rereading Dostoevsky and continue the search.
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Summary: A MILESTONE
Review: In order to judge the actual literary production, one must have some references, some rocks one can depend on. Fyodor Dostoevsky's novels are solid stones for our fragile feet. The influence of his psychological studies can be observed not only in literature but also in cinema or even in some music pieces of the beginning of the century. The main character of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, Raskolnikov, has become a literary type, an icon, the symbol of the cold-blooded murderer. And his ideas, his terrible belief that murder can be justified if some good comes from it, stays as one of the most complex thought ever exposed in a book. If you are not familiar with the XIXth century russian literature, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT could be an excellent introduction. Easy to read, it's one of the first crime novels ever written with enough action to wake you up between two monologs of Raskolnikov. But don't judge russian literature by the novels of Dostoevsky alone, try also Tourguéniev for the subtle descriptions of his landlords lost in the middle of the eternal Russia or Tchékhov for his ability to paint the absurdness of life in three pages. In short, Fyodor Dostoevsky's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT must absolutely be a book for your library. Don't forget to read it...
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: This used to be my favorite book and is still one of my favorites. It is about a young man driven by poverty to believe he is exempt from the law. He kills this old woman for her money and all throughout the book is sort of paranoid about whether people know he did it or not. Even though it starts out slow after the first few chapters it is VERY suspensful. Although the ending surprised me trhis is still a great book. The character Razumikhin is also cool too.
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Summary: A critique of Human Sacrifice in the Name of an Ideal
Review: "Crime and Punishment" is probably the most famous and most accessible of Dostoevsky's novels. Set in late Nineteenth Century Saint Petersburg, the novel contains elements of a detective story, a psychological study and metaphysical exploration. The novel is about an impoverished young law student named Raskolnikov who examines the possibility of killing his elderly landlady and stealing her money so that he can use it to assist his family. Raskolnikov soon concludes that killing the landlady constitutes a heroic and decisive act of courage. He murders her with an axe and steals her money but soon falls under suspicion and is investigated by the police. The police inspector suspects Raskolnikov of committing the crime but does not attempt to arrest him immediately. Instead, the inspector drags out the investigation in order to give Raskolnikov the opportunity to come to terms with his own conscience. Eventually the burden on Raskolnikov's conscience and the realization that his crime will not solve his family's problems compel Raskolnikov to confess. He is subsequently arrested and sentenced to a few years imprisonment in Siberia. Although "Crime and Punishment" is something of a thriller, it is largely a novel of ideas. When Raskolnikov rationalizes his right to kill his landlady, he assumes the role of the Nietzian superman: an individual whose state of mind and whose actions transcend good and evil. The police inspector symbolizes the counter argument to Raskolnikov's validation of the Nietzian superman by realigning Raskolnikov with his own conscience. Ultimately, this novel argues that no man is beyond good and evil and that any attempt to thwart one's conscience is bound to end in folly. The theme of "Crime and Punishment" takes place on an individual level, but can also be applied to the historical progress of nations as well. Dostoevsky was passionately opposed to what he felt was mankind's hubris in attempting to build a paradise on Earth-an act that he felt was symbolized by the Crystal Palace (Britain's exhibit in the World's Fair). Dostoevsky believed that creating a utopian society involved the type of deliberate human sacrifice and moral realignment performed by Raskolnikov. Dostoevsky's fears appear to have been born out in the Soviet experience, in which the entire apparatus of government from the leaders of the nation to the lowest commissars slaughtered millions of Russian citizens in the name of socialism and progress.
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Summary: A Masterpiece by a Masterful Author
Review: Dostoyevsky has a way of writing the inmost darkness of thehuman heart. He knew the struggles of what it meant to suffer and anguish under the consequence of ideas. Crime and punishment is a book of the depravity of the human heart and a type of treatise against the social and political structure that caused him so much grief. A man (Raskolnikov) who has left his passion (his studies) and become a pheasant in St. Petersburg, has become anguished about his current state of affairs and decides that the only way out of such a state is to kill Alyonova Ivanovna (a pawn broker). However, the interesting thing about the contemplation of this act, is the fact that the reason Raskolnikov is contemplating killing Alyonova Ivanovna, is because Raskolnikov believes this pawn broker's existence is meaningless and should thus be ended. The novel is a thriller in part, and a work that deals with the depravity that lies within each of us as people. Raskolnikov, "the killer" is seen in this work as a man who is struggling with his own actions and reasons for doing such a horrid thing. And yet on one level you can see how Dostoyevsky parallels this act with the political and social structure of the Czars that have caused, in Dostoyevsky mind, such a similar death to the common poor people of Russia in the 19th century. This book is not only a classic novel but it is also a nice treatise of 19th century Russian history during the existential ideas of the Czarist 1800's.
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Summary: The mind of a killer
Review: Dostoevsky, with his book Crime and Punishment, unknowingly influenced every great writer since. There are many books that stay with a person, days or weeks after reading them, but Crime and Punishment is one of the few that live on forever. After reading the book, my eyes have been opened to the light of the human soul. Raskolnikov, the central character, is an unmotivated, destitute man. He is symbolic of the so called "dirt", that the world tries so desperately to rid. The novels plot is tight as they come, but it is Dostoevsky's supreme insight and reality into the mind of a killer, Raskolnikov, that makes this novel a testament to genius. Some may read this novel to be "well-read", I say read this novel to gain the foothold to the bottom of your own soul. It will help you gain the realization of self, with a better understanding of the society that can bring men down and subsequently lift them up. I will not give away the ending, but read the book not for the ending, but for the journey that it takes you through, the journey into hell.
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Summary: Not as uplighting or enlightening as NOTES
Review: Coming shortly before the Ubermensch, Dostoevsky's protagonist spends 500 pages in mental anguish. A philosophic dilemma that is more and more revelant to modern day society, the Russian master beat us to it over 100 years ago. Be jealous. Quick read due to smooth prose (is you select a good translation that is) as well as vivid imagery.
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