Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment"

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ktfrank04
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Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment"

Post by ktfrank04 »

My review from Goodreads:

Absolutely fantastic.
Took a while for me to get really into it (about 100pages or so), but once i did, i loved it. This is the third classic i have read of Dostoevsky's, and definitely one of my favorites.
I thoroughly enjoy his dry humor, cracks me up every time. The ending was shocking.. And then heartwarming. The philosophy was intriguing and thought provoking for sure. A must read for anyone who has ever questioned the boundaries and norms of society. Rodion Romanovitch may be a murderer, but he is one you will sympathize with and uh ..kind-of learn to understand.
Overall i was impressed and very satisfied, and that is rare.

**Fyodor Dosoevsky's books are a MUST READ if you are getting into classics.
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Post by castor »

It's been many years since i read it, but i remember loving it,too. Absolutely a must-read.
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Post by natasha richmond »

I loved this book! The first 90 pages or so are boring but after that it really comes together. I read it my junior year in high school and thought it was amazing.
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Post by Skillian »

Yes! Absolutely great. Don't get me wrong at first I was like oh man this might be painful.. and I had to create nicknames in my mind the first go round in order to keep the characters straight. It was great the second time I read it.. once my brain relaxed a bit. haha. Oh and I also agree about the first hundred pages the first time through it... but yeah definitely I pushed through. That always seems to be the struggle sometimes... if a book seems majorly drag-worthy at first... or for whatever reason bad or not enjoyable... to continue or put it down? I usually always end up finishing it, because of books like this one. There are a few that suddenly BAM! and then its awesome... all suddenly makes sense. However if it is a series... if the first book doesn't do it and the second book's summary isn't helping... I generally give up on the series.
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Post by Margar21 »

I have been meaning to read this book, I will have to get around to it :)
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Post by Redlegs »

I struggled a little bit with Crime and Punishment. It is a dark novel and I found the characters just a little weird and the dialogue very strange indeed. Notwithstanding that the main protagonist was probably insane, the situations and behaviors just didn't quite ring true in several instances. I kept asking myself - "why would you do that?"

But I am more than prepared to give Dostoevsky another go.
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Post by Himmelslicht »

My review from Goodreads:

When I started reading this book I had no idea about the density of it. It's an obscure book of great emotional and psychological burden. Analyzes to the last detail human behavior and what precedes it. Nothing like committing a crime to make us to consider all options, consequences, questions and details. The crime is committed by the simple need to survive and overcome a greater obstacle, but above all the chaos it is about surviving with no apparent cause, but a rawn and animal survival instinct is that does not originate in reason or logic.

I do not know where to start my review on what what I thought about the book. You can't simply write a few paragraphs criticizing a work so dense and so magnanimous.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a great and engaging author, revolutionized the history of literature and created a milestone that would change everything. His thorough and meticulous spirit proved that the best artists are carved with 99% work and 1% talent, making that 1% very significant. But without discipline there couldn't exist a masterpiece quite like what Dostoyevsky has offered us.
I must confess, however, I did not expect a work this psychologically heavy. All the characters seem damaged somehow. We have a murderer (which is, not counting Svidrigailov), a prostitute who, oddly enough, is caste in her behavior, and at least, a man prone to pedophilia.
There are also all in a tendency to delirium. Throughout the book believe that at least one character constantly suffering from disease outbreaks and delusions. Any act of cruelty thats was considered punishable by laws meant that characters would fall ill to their bones. I believe that Raskolnikov's consciousness was his true punishment, but still, not knowing exactly why because he surrendered, I concluded that he might have felt automatically relieved as soon as he was convicted.
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Post by zoedecicco »

I loved this book. One of my all time favourites.

The way that the protagonist's paranoia builds and builds is just incredible. A must-read, if you can get past the first, slightly drier, part.

I've read it twice already,and I'm sure I will again someday...
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Post by DATo »

I am going to offer a little anecdote that some of you might find interesting. I will be mindful not to include direct spoilers for the sake of those who have not yet read the book but I am sure that those of you who are familiar with the story will know what I am talking about.

I had been reading this book and had finally come to the "moment of decision" and its immediate aftermath. That night I dreamed I had murdered someone for no apparent reason. In the dream I immediately felt the fear of discovery - the paranoia that follows in the footsteps of he who commits a great and heinous crime which is contrary to his true nature. I berated myself for doing something so stupid and yet so profound. It was perhaps the most psychologically realistic dream of my life.

When an author like Dostoyevsky can pen a novel which is so well articulated that the story insinuates itself into one's own subconscious to the extent that the actual feelings of a character are replayed in dreams and experienced with such vicarious realism that the reader wakes in a cold sweat, it is then then that you know that you have been reading the work of a true literary genius.
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Post by Himmelslicht »

DATo wrote:I am going to offer a little anecdote that some of you might find interesting. I will be mindful not to include direct spoilers for the sake of those who have not yet read the book but I am sure that those of you who are familiar with the story will know what I am talking about.

I had been reading this book and had finally come to the "moment of decision" and its immediate aftermath. That night I dreamed I had murdered someone for no apparent reason. In the dream I immediately felt the fear of discovery - the paranoia that follows in the footsteps of he who commits a great and heinous crime which is contrary to his true nature. I berated myself for doing something so stupid and yet so profound. It was perhaps the most psychologically realistic dream of my life.

When an author like Dostoyevsky can pen a novel which is so well articulated that the story insinuates itself into one's own subconscious to the extent that the actual feelings of a character are replayed in dreams and experienced with such vicarious realism that the reader wakes in a cold sweat, it is then then that you know that you have been reading the work of a true literary genius.
I've been through that as well! I was so relieved when I woke up and realized it was just a dream.

And I absolutely agree with you. He's a true genius. He built a character with so much psychological depth to his single action that so far I've never seen anyone come close to what he's done with that book.
Some people may say it was boring to have the paranoia described at the level but if it wasn't the way it was published there wouldn't be a masterpiece at all. Absolutely astounding.
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Post by PashaRu »

Agreed. This novel stays with you for awhile after you read it. Raskolnikov is truly a complex and intriguing character. The depth to which his psychosis is explored by Dostoyevsky is fascinating and ahead of its time. My Russian probably isn't good enough to read it in its native form, but I'm sure it adds sundry dimensions to it. Russian is a very rich language and in the hands of a capable writer is a beautiful medium for literature and poetry.
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Post by Himmelslicht »

PashaRu wrote:Agreed. This novel stays with you for awhile after you read it. Raskolnikov is truly a complex and intriguing character. The depth to which his psychosis is explored by Dostoyevsky is fascinating and ahead of its time. My Russian probably isn't good enough to read it in its native form, but I'm sure it adds sundry dimensions to it. Russian is a very rich language and in the hands of a capable writer is a beautiful medium for literature and poetry.
You know Russian?!
I always think that a book is best read in its original language. For example, many times I think people don't like certain books because they read in languages that are completely different from the original language. That's why, for example, in One Hundred Years of Solitude, I understand why people who read it in English (or any other non Latin language) didn't like it as much as people who read it in a Latin one. There's a lyricism to it that is lost in translation. That's a little sad.
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Post by PashaRu »

Himmelslicht wrote: You know Russian?!
I always think that a book is best read in its original language. For example, many times I think people don't like certain books because they read in languages that are completely different from the original language. That's why, for example, in One Hundred Years of Solitude, I understand why people who read it in English (or any other non Latin language) didn't like it as much as people who read it in a Latin one. There's a lyricism to it that is lost in translation. That's a little sad.
I can speak Russian fairly well; my grammar and pronunciation aren't always perfect (Russian grammar is crazy complicated), but reading classical literature is quite another story. Especially because the Russian language has changed quite a bit since Dostoyevsky's time. The revolution and communism brought tremendous changes, and the language itself was substantially altered, sometimes intentionally.

I agree; I think reading a book in its native form is best. I'd love to read Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy and Pushkin in Russian; Hugo in French; and Cervantes in Spanish. I'm sure every language has its classics, and it would be way cool to read any of them in the original language.
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Post by Himmelslicht »

PashaRu wrote:
Himmelslicht wrote: You know Russian?!
I always think that a book is best read in its original language. For example, many times I think people don't like certain books because they read in languages that are completely different from the original language. That's why, for example, in One Hundred Years of Solitude, I understand why people who read it in English (or any other non Latin language) didn't like it as much as people who read it in a Latin one. There's a lyricism to it that is lost in translation. That's a little sad.
I can speak Russian fairly well; my grammar and pronunciation aren't always perfect (Russian grammar is crazy complicated), but reading classical literature is quite another story. Especially because the Russian language has changed quite a bit since Dostoyevsky's time. The revolution and communism brought tremendous changes, and the language itself was substantially altered, sometimes intentionally.

I agree; I think reading a book in its native form is best. I'd love to read Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy and Pushkin in Russian; Hugo in French; and Cervantes in Spanish. I'm sure every language has its classics, and it would be way cool to read any of them in the original language.
How long did it take you to learn a language with such different characters?
I saw an infographic the other day that it takes approximately 88 weeks to learn a language that is completely different from Latin characters (Japanese, Hebrew, Arabic, etc).
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Post by PashaRu »

Himmelslicht wrote:
How long did it take you to learn a language with such different characters?
I saw an infographic the other day that it takes approximately 88 weeks to learn a language that is completely different from Latin characters (Japanese, Hebrew, Arabic, etc).
I feel like I'm still learning. The Russian alphabet is actually fairly easy to learn, and Russian isn't terribly difficult to read because it's almost completely phonetic. Grammar is very difficult. There are three genders and six cases in Russian, and since it's an inflected language, nouns, verbs, adjectives, deverbals, participles, etc. all change depending on their usage.

I think 88 weeks is extremely conservative. I teach English as a second (foreign) language. I've taught students of many different languages, and have never known one who "learned" English in that period of time. It's 3-5 years before a native English speaker can be conversant in Russian, and I think the same is true for other languages like Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, etc. Of course, that will vary from person to person.
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