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Title: Crime and Punishment: The Coulson Translation Backgrounds and Sources: Essays in Criticism by Feodor Dostoevsky, George Gibian, Fyodor M. Dostoevsky ISBN: 0-393-95623-7 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: June, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.35 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.83 (6 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Looking for a Tough Jigsaw Puzzle?
Comment: Then Crime and Punishment is for you! This book entertains a serious literary reader with its complex plots and characters. The story of a murderer in a denial confuses the reader with his mentality and motives.
Although I did give this novel 4 stars for Dostoevsky's writing but this book didn't click very well with me because I am more of a romance reader. I read this for a Russian literature course. One of the things that Dostoevsky has never failed to impress me was the metaphors in this novel. This is a certain metaphor that I thought was the best I've ever read but I can't remember where it is in the novel but I do know that it's after when Duna dumps her fiance. Definitely a great writer to look up for excellent writing and go by his examples!!!
Rating: 5
Summary: One of the greatest novels ever written
Comment: I cannot emphasise enough just how wonderful this book is. Dostoevsky introduces a set of characters which we all in a way know, and through their completely believable and realistic interactions, expresses powerful, mystical messages. In essence, the story is about a young, intelligent former student, Raskolnikov (similar to Raskol, schism), who by cold, unemotional thought arrives at a sort of nihilism, and even goes so far as to thinking that an "extraordinary person" is justified in taking away a useless, harmful life for the greater good, and then, partially out of an effort to prove that he is such as person, commits a murder which he feels fits this program. At the same time, there is seething conflict inside him; the compassionate, loving side of his personality is revolting against these horrible thoughts. As Razumihin remarks, Raskolnikov is two people living in the same body. In a sense, Raskolnikov's original idea is correct; there is no harm done in removing pure, harmful evil, but one of Dostoevsky's principal messages in this novel is that there is no such thing as a purely harmful individual; Dostoevsky accomplishes this goal by presenting the character of an old pawn broker and her half-sister, Lizaveta. Through Raskolnikov's eyes, all good characteristics are placed in Lizaveta, and all that is evil is placed in the pawn broker; hence Raskolnikov feels justified in killing the pawn broker, but really it should come as no surprise that he ends up killing Lizaveta as well, that is, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO ELIMINATE PURE EVIL, one inevitably takes some good away with it too. THIS is Raskolnikov's crime, the taking away of good in the form of Lizaveta. (Incidentally, Lizaveta Ivanovna's name is meant to bring up reminisces of the character of the same name in Pushkin's Queen of Spades; Dostoevsky was a great admirer of Pushkin.) After this crime, Raskolnikov loses sanity (it seems to me that Dostoevsky is trying to say that insanity cannot be held off by reason alone; one need loving belief as well), and eventually, although he does not know it at the time, confesses out of love for the Christ-like character of Sonia (short for Sofia, which is wisdom in Greek), and eventually, in one of the most beautiful and touching endings of ANY novels, his soul is redeemed by faith and love; even though he is sentenced to seven years in a Siberian prison camp, he and Sonia look on it as if it were seven days, and eagerly anticipate their freedom together. Although much of the novel is set in depressing circumstances, for me there is no other novel (even perhaps the great and still more philosophical Brothers Karamazov) which is as much sheer fun to read. As if this were not enough, this edition is absolutely first rate; the notes are very helpful and Dostoevsky's letters regarding this work together with the critical appraisals of Crime and Punishment (I LOVE Tolstoy's essay; it rings so true) particularly illuminating. I feel it is the duty of any educated person to read this book intelligently; I guarantee you, you will get new meaning out of this compact masterpiece every time you do so.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent
Comment: This is an excellent novel that delves into themes of crime, guilt, madness, and cosmic. It is not a hopeless tale, though. For Dostoevsky seems to say that our salvation lies in love and faith.
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Title: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad ISBN: 0486264645 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 July, 1990 List Price(USD): $1.50 |
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Title: Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (Barron's Book Notes) by Virginia B. Morris, Fyodor M. Dostoevsky ISBN: 0812034090 Publisher: Barrons Educational Series Pub. Date: October, 1984 List Price(USD): $3.95 |
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Title: The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum : Or How Violence Develops and Where It Can Lead (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) by Heinrich Böll, Leila Vennewitz ISBN: 0140187286 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: June, 1994 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Crime and Punishment (Cliffs Notes) by James L. Roberts ISBN: 0764586556 Publisher: Cliffs Notes Pub. Date: 07 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Konstanfin Mochulski ISBN: 0553212168 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 April, 1984 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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