Rating: 
Summary: Crime and Punishment
Review: "Crime and Punishment" was written by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I rate this classic a nine out of ten; it lacked hardly any literary elements, but it was a solemn and depressing novel. However, it was very enlightening to read a book in which the protagonist is the criminal.
Dostoevsky's somber tone comes from the opening murder of an old pawnbroker and her unfortunate sister by the young student Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov of the university in Petersburg. The work is from then on themed on the protagonist's unconscious longing to be caught and made to suffer. Just weeks after his flawlessly planned murder, Raskolnikov meets the head clerk of the police at a soon. In a strained conversation, Raskolnikov finally bursts, "And what if it was I who murdered the old woman and Lizaveta?" (145). This question merely frightens the police officer, but does not arouse any suspicion. Raskolnikov is a dark young man who is sulky and impassioned at what one can deem as the idiocy of the other characters.
"Crime and Punishment" is full of illustrious diction and vivid detail. If you liked "The Count of Monte Cristo" or "Doctor Zhivago", then you will like this book.Kezia E. Ofiesh
Rating: 
Summary: I barely know why I liked this book, but I did
Review: When I started to read Crime and Punishment about a quarter through it I decided to stop...or so I thought. As it turned out, I picked it up again. This book can be gory and even boring, and the main character is a murderer, and yet something about the depth of emotion in it kept me reading it. In most modern novels I've read the author tries too hard to show the characters emotions by spelling it out for you. And it comes across mediocre. Dostoevsky doesn't make that mistake, the raw emotion is mostly implied by physical reactions and leaves you to fill in the feeling yourself, almost like a good movie, I think that's one of the things that held my interest.
Rating: 
Summary: not close to the Brothers Karamazov
Review: I found the first part of the book, in which the pre-murder and murder phases are described, to be excellent, but the last 250 pages to be utterly boring, except for the scenes between the police and the protagonist. THese last 250 pages are filled with tangential matters regarding Roskolnikov's family, and relationships between R. and a prostitute, and between R's friend and R"s sister. My feeling about all this was: who cares? With the murder being such an overwhelming central theme, these other stories just seem a waste of time, and are very tedious to wade through, waiting for something interesting to resume again. The Brothers Karamazov is so far superior that it is not correct to assume that this is at the same level.
Rating:
Summary: The prototypical psychological thriller
Review: This is perhaps the original psychological thriller and suspense novel. A young, disaffected student, Raskolnikov, ruminates over the nature of his own miserable poverty, drops out of school and is consumed with his romantic condition of ennui. (Today- a clinical depression.) In a stupor, and supposing himself to be merely reviewing the possibilities, he murders an old moneylender and then, to save his skin, he murders her sister. Although he feels no 'conscious' remorse, he swoons in halluncinatory fever and betrays himself by his shaking hands, hypervigilant questions and sleep talk. The rest of the novel is a sort of "Tell Tale Heart" of suspicion, strange accusers and sudden dream walks which take him to the crime scene and thus alert his would-be captors. The inner torment and the outer pursuit merge together- he cannot tell what is real and what is a dream. Neither can the reader.
C&P is Dowstoyevski's most accessible novel and the only one that can be enjoyed for the story alone. Except for the end, which drags on too much for my patience, the tale moves briskly with edge of the seat tension, swerves and turns in the plot and not a little vice. Of the latter there is drunkenness, prostitution, rape and shameless misuse of money and trust. There is constant uncertainty and characters who are not what they appear. Raskolnikov, and other ambiguously moral characters suddenly arise as generous, selfless and sympathetic. Similary they are enormously cold and cruel, often to their beloveds and dependents. Typical for his age and status our hero is full of weak theories and flabby nihilism. The author takes aim at those upper class Marixist apologists prophetically imagining the blood and anarchy that would soon envelop Russian destiny. He pokes fun as well at the pompous adherents of the "new" science of psychology. Seeing into the future, no wonder, he was dreary and reactionary. There are a handful of those comic asides- not nearly as many as in Karamazov and his shorter novels, but a fairly good stab is taken at the latest literary artists- at himself.
His struggle and the manic extremes in the nation and his individual soul is, the bare force that burnt away creatively and timelessly.
Great book- for the story and then for the cross-section of that time and unique place, Petersburg, post- Napoleon and pre-Revolution.
Rating:
Summary: Obsessive Brilliance!
Review: Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikoff , the truly marvellous creation of Dostevsky's 'Crime and Punishment ', representative of an uncontrollably intelligent mind swarming with thoughts bearing doubt, anger, chaos and extreme kindness! An epic about how a young man, Rodion, a former University student forced to withdraw from studies owing to paucity of finances, finds himself dictated by his inner urges which eventually lead to his killing of an old venomous usurer, Alena Ivanovna. The book then follows Rodion's path of self-destruction, bought about largely due to his inability to resist the incessant, yet hauntingly and brilliantly perceptive derivations of his own mind. A man lost in himself every breathing moment, unaware of his physically deteriorating body, and helpless in regards, his tumultuous mind. He is fiercely gripped by guilt for his crime, anxiety for it's result, and madness for his justification of the very act. Existing alongside a brilliant cast of characters, each adding to the nervousness of the surroundings, Crime and Punishment is simply a must read.
Rating:
Summary: THANK GOD IT'S FINISHED
Review: I HAD TO FORCE MYSELF TO KEEP READING THIS NOVEL. I ASSUMED THAT A NOVEL THAT HAD GOTTEN TO THE STATUS OF "CLASSIC" WOULD BE A TERRIFIC NOVEL. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. EVERY EXCITING PAGE IN THE BOOK WAS FOLLOWED BY 50 PAGES OF TEDIOUS NOTHING. I AM AN AVID READER AND USUALLY FINISH A NOVEL IN A COUPLE OF DAYS. THIS TOOK ME TWO WEEKS TO FINISH. I COULDN'T WAIT FOR IT TO END.UNLESS YOU HAVE TO READ THIS FOR A CLASS DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME.
Rating:
Summary: A nervous walk through a dark and brilliant mind
Review: The work is well-known, but the reasons may not be familiar to all. This book is a terrific suspense novel, a model of characterization, a work of mystery, historical in that it chronicles 19th century Russia, and fantastically thought provoking. Dostoyevsky is nothing if not a student of the psyche. You will really get into the deepest recesses of the confused protagonist's mind. He is idealistic, yet evil; corrupt, yet good; hopeful, yet jaded. Dostoyevsky also eagerly reveals the flaws in the characters traditionally perceived as "good guys". He plants a seed of doubt about right and wrong, and that is a good thing. I personally associate Poe and Dostoyevsky very closely, so if you like Poe, and don't mind reading a longer work, Crime and Punishment is a must. Something to think about once you have read the book: Many critics believe Dostoyevsky's works were always semi-autobiographical...
Rating:
Summary: the basic goodness of society
Review: If you aren't in for a long cognitive adventure, then don't read this book. I wouldn't reccomend reading it by the pool or lying on the beach with a boombox at your back. Chances are though, if you are even looking up this review, that isn't the type of reader you are. If you are willing to advance the effort, you will be duly rewarded with this novel. True, I found some parts to be slow and a little over done, but for a book written in the late 1800's to still be appreciated in 2002?! That is truly amazing. It transends time, culture, race, religion, sex... despite the fact that it was written so long ago, if you try to read it, you will enjoy this novel. I promise. It starts in the sity of St. Petersburg, it starts with our young protragonist with a Napolean complex, hungry, alone and ashamed. He comes up with a scenerio he doesn't think himself capable of, and though it may not be necessary for his survival, it certainly could potentially help him, and his family. More than anything, to prove himself to himself he commits the crime, despite the fact that he doesn't really want to in the first place. Then, like a slap in the face of his own geniusness, he finds himself betrayed by his own worst enemy, his conscience. It is ironic that it is so easy for our young hero to accept the fact that he is a good person that made mistakes, when it is so easy for him to accept this trait in others (enter the drunk that prostitues his daughter). Unlike most of society (then or now) Rasko (my pet name for him as the names in this novel got a bit out of hand) held the amazing characteristic of being able to see through people and realize that some of us who look bad to others, are really good at heart and some that look good to society, are real harmful people underneath.Too bad he couldn't apply this logic to the mirror. This is a psychological thriller that doesn't have a thrilling plot, a romance novel with no love, a soliliquy with no song. This book basicallly encompasses everything it wasn't. It explores the mind of a criminal and demonstrates the philosophy that every man is inherently good, even those that do bad things. These bad things are fed with some sort of explanation, we just have to listen for it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent translation
Review: An excellent translation of a fascinating, suspenseful novel. Did Dostoevsky invent the psychological thriller? I also recommend their translation of Gogol's Dead Souls--hilarious!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent translation
Review: An excellent translation of a fascinating, suspenseful novel. Did Dostoevsky invent the psychological thriller?
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