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Summary: Crime and Punishment
Review: I thought that Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment was a great book. It was suspenseful, captivating, and well-written. The characters seemed very real and life-like. It was very graphic and detailed, describing even to the last of the feelings of Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov before, during, and after the murder. The details of the scenes of the murder, the police station, and the trampling of Marmeladov were very explicit and well-written. The only bad points of the book are the use of Old English spelling and grammar, and that the story is sometimes hard to follow. The book has excellent detail and was captivating and full of suspense. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to tackle the 493 pages. Overall, it was a good book.
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Summary: Realizing the Crime
Review: "A man with a weak mind, kills his landlady. He who is afraid of consequences, but doesn't realize his own sin until he understands the power of love......" Dostoevsky surprisingly and amazingly describes the mind of a human discriptly. I recommend you to read this book. It's a life time experience.
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Summary: The best novel ever written!
Review: I loved this novel. I have never read anything quite so brilliant in my life and I read a lot of books! I recommend this to everyone. A must read for sure.
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Summary: It's a crime to not read this timeless gem!
Review: Here's a book that intimidates the less hard-core reader. It's thick, bulky, and chock full of text. Get past your fear and you'll find a story so human, so real, you'll never forget it!
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Summary: An analysis of the soul
Review: Crime and Punishment was my first exposure to Dostoyevsky and I must say that I am amazed at his writing talent. I became so immersed in this book that I found myself crying at several important points of the book. Dostoyevsky did an incredible job developing the main characters of the book and bringing out their human side. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read...it will be worth it!
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Summary: what a terrible book!
Review: this book seems to have given me a fresh shock. I wanna take it to my grave. and on heaven in case I meet the author I'd like to say to him that you did a wonderful job.
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Summary: SUPERB TRANSLATION
Review: once again pevear and volokhonsky have created a masterpiece out of a masterpiece. beautiful, effortless translation. as for the novel itself, it is not nearly as great as "the brothers karamazov", still, a must read.
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Summary: Thick Plot
Review: I've never read a novel of this magnitude before. It has a really deep and complex plot. The many characters (many of which I cannot even pronounce their names) which helps to thicken the story, were either mysterious or you loved them or loved to hate'em. I didn't think I could read a book like this, but I found it easy to read and get in to. Just make sure you have a dictionary at hand. The list of words I wrote down from this book that I didn't know were quite long. The main character really perplexed me as I tried to figure him out. I didn't know whether to love him or hate him. There were at times some dry parts of the book where too much detail was really unnecessary and makes it hard to get through those pages. This book is about sin, redemption, love, mystery, forgiveness, philosophies, and guilt. I'd recommend it to people who love to read, not really for the novice reader.
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Summary: An Affecting & Entertaining Masterpiece
Review: I read CRIME & PUNISHMENT many years ago in a different translation, and I found it extremely difficult. This translation by Pevear & Volokhonsky not only makes this masterpiece easier to follow, it also restores its energy and humor. The story and characters burst with life, making for a very affecting and entertaining read. It's not at all the "medicine" that many so-called "classics" can be - I enjoyed reading this book.
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Summary: Crime and Punishment
Review: Review of Crime and Punishment By a Colorado reader A pale - faced man stares at a door that marks his destiny. Beads of sweat run down his sunken face. His fate sealed, he nervously looks at the old woman before him, his eyes darting across the room, barley able to hold the cruel stare of the elderly pawnbroker. Heart pounding, he resists the urge to cry out in terror, and run from the shrewd old woman, but his mind is set. He cannot return, he has gone too far to stop now, and must carry out his desperation induced crime. Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment revolves around a poor man struggling to survive in St. Petersburg, Russia. Raskolnikov, the main character, is stricken with both poverty and sickness. It's these determining factors that drive him into murdering a wealthy pawnbroker. Dostoevsky does a masterful job in describing the intense mental anguish that the protagonist goes through both before and after committing the act. He uses symbolism throughout the novel to help further this description of Raskolnikov's suffering, such as the intense fever he suffers that begins just prior the murder, peaks during the act, and continues for days afterwards. This fever also plays a major role in how those characters around him react to him after the crime. Nearly everyone around him is sympathetic towards him, and try to help, but Raskolnikov view himself as being superior to these others, and so rejects any form of charity offered to him. This is another one of Dostoevsky's commentaries on life. He believes that criminals who aren't used to committing crimes act in generally the same manner as Raskolnikov does. They slowly but surely isolate themselves socially, simply because of the fact that all they can think about is the crime itself. This is true of the main character, but in later chapters he tries to correct this after meeting a prostitute that he views to be a victim of situation, much as he seems to view himself. Now of course, this is not a terribly easy book to read, as most of the names are in Russian, and are at times hard to keep track of. Another aspect of the novel, is that at times, it can get rather dry and slow, but with patience it inevitably gets better, and is masterfully written to delve deep into the psychological aspects of punishment that are not as readily visible.
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