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Fyodor Dostoevsky

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Crime and Punishment (Vintage Classics) Paperback – March 2, 1993

by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Author), Richard Pevear (Translator), Larissa Volokhonsky (Translator)

4.7 4,441 ratings

in Russian & Soviet Literature

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Hailed by Washington Post Book World as “the best [translation] currently available" when it was first published, this second edition of Crime and Punishment has been updated in honor of the 200th anniversary of Dostoevsky’s birth. • ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME

With the same suppleness, energy, and range of voices that won their translation of The Brothers Karamazov the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky offer a brilliant translation of Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky's astounding pyschological thriller, newly revised for his bicentenniel.

In Crime and Punishment, when Raskolnikov, an impoverished student living in the St. Petersburg of the tsars, commits an act of murder and theft, he sets into motion a story that is almost unequalled in world literature for its excruciating suspense, its atmospheric vividness, and its depth of characterization and vision. Dostoevsky’s drama of sin, guilt, and redemption transforms the sordid story of an old woman’s murder into the nineteenth century’s profoundest and most compelling philosophical novel.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An acclaimed new translation of the classic Russian novel.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“The best [translation of Crime and Punishment] currently available…. An especially faithful re-creation … with a coiled-spring kinetic energy…. Don’t miss it.” —The Washington Post Book World

“This fresh, new translation … provides a more exact, idiomatic, and contemporary rendition of the novel that brings Fyodor Dostoevsky’s tale achingly alive…. It succeeds beautifully.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Reaches as close to Dostoevsky’ s Russian as is possible in English…. The original’s force and frightening immediacy is captured…. The Pevear and Volokhonsky translation will become the standard English version.” —Chicago Tribune

From the Inside Flap

With the same suppleness, energy, and range of voices that won their translation of The Brothers Karamazov the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize, Pevear and Volokhonsky offer a brilliant translation of Dostoevsky's classic novel that presents a clear insight into this astounding psychological thriller. "The best (translation) currently available"--Washington Post Book World.

About the Author

FYODOR MIKAILOVICH DOSTOEVSKY's life was as dark and dramatic as the great novels he wrote. He was born in Moscow in 1821. A short first novel, Poor Folk (1846) brought him instant success, but his writing career was cut short by his arrest for alleged subversion against Tsar Nicholas I in 1849. In prison he was given the “silent treatment” for eight months (guards even wore velvet soled boots) before he was led in front a firing squad. Dressed in a death shroud, he faced an open grave and awaited execution, when suddenly, an order arrived commuting his sentence. He then spent four years at hard labor in a Siberian prison, where he began to suffer from epilepsy, and he returned to St. Petersburg only a full ten years after he had left in chains.

His prison experiences coupled with his conversion to a profoundly religious philosophy formed the basis for his great novels. But it was his fortuitous marriage to Anna Snitkina, following a period of utter destitution brought about by his compulsive gambling, that gave Dostoevsky the emotional stability to complete Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1868-69), The Possessed (1871-72),and The Brothers Karamazov (1879-80). When Dostoevsky died in 1881, he left a legacy of masterworks that influenced the great thinkers and writers of the Western world and immortalized him as a giant among writers of world literature.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER 1

On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. Bridge.

He had successfully avoided meeting his landlady on the staircase. His garret was under the roof of a high, five-storied house, and was more like a cupboard than a room. The landlady, who provided him with garret, dinners, and attendance, lived on the floor below, and every time he went out he was obliged to pass her kitchen, the door of which invariably stood open. And each time he passed, the young man had a sick, frightened feeling, which made him scowl and feel ashamed. He was hopelessly in debt to his landlady, and was afraid of meeting her.

This was not because he was cowardly and abject, quite the contrary; but for some time past, he had been in an over-strained, irritable condition, verging on hypochondria. He had become so completely absorbed in himself, and isolated from his fellows that he dreaded meeting, not only his landlady, but any one at all. He was crushed by poverty, but the anxieties of his position had of late ceased to weigh upon him. He had given up attending to matters of practical importance; he had lost all desire to do so. Nothing that any landlady could do had a real terror for him. But to be stopped on the stairs, to be forced to listen to her trivial, irrelevant gossip, to pestering demands for payment, threats and complaints, and to rack his brains for excuses, to prevaricate, to lie--no, rather than that, he would creep down the stairs like a cat and slip out unseen.

This evening, however, on coming out into the street, he became acutely aware of his fears.

"I want to attempt a thing like that and am frightened by these trifles," he thought, with an odd smile. "Hm . . . yes, all is in a man's hands and he lets it all slip from cowardice, that's an axiom. It would be interesting to know what it is men are most afraid of. Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what they fear most. . . . But I am talking too much. It's because I chatter that I do nothing. Or perhaps it is that I chatter because I do nothing. I've learned to chatter this last month, lying for days together in my den thinking . . . of Jack the Giant-killer. Why am I going there now? Am I capable of that? Is that serious? It is not serious at all. It's simply a fantasy to amuse myself; a plaything! Yes, maybe it is a plaything."

The heat in the street was terrible: and the airlessness, the bustle and the plaster, scaffolding, bricks, and dust all about him, and that special Petersburg stench, so familiar to all who are unable to get out of town in summer--all worked painfully upon the young man's already overwrought nerves. The insufferable stench from the pot-houses, which are particularly numerous in that part of the town, and the drunken men whom he met continually, although it was a working day, completed the revolting misery of the picture. An expression of the profoundest disgust gleamed for a moment in the young man's refined face. He was, by the way, exceptionally handsome, above the average in height, slim, well-built, with beautiful dark eyes and dark brown hair. Soon he sank into deep thought, or more accurately speaking into a complete blankness of mind; he walked along not observing what was about him and not caring to observe it. From time to time, he would mutter something, from the habit of talking to himself, to which he had just confessed. At these moments he would become conscious that his ideas were sometimes in a tangle and that he was very weak; for two days he had scarcely tasted food.

He was so badly dressed that even a man accustomed to shabbiness would have been ashamed to be seen in the street in such rags. In that quarter of the town, however, scarcely any short-coming in dress would have created surprise. Owing to the proximity of the Hay Market, the number of establishments of bad character, the preponderance of the trading and working class population crowded in these streets and alleys in the heart of Petersburg, types so various were to be seen in the streets that no figure, however queer, would have caused surprise. But there was such accumulated bitterness and contempt in the young man's heart that, in spite of all the fastidiousness of youth, he minded his rags least of all in the street. It was a different matter when he met with acquaintances or with former fellow students, whom, indeed, he disliked meeting at any time. And yet when a drunken man who, for some unknown reason, was being taken somewhere in a huge waggon dragged by a heavy dray horse, suddenly shouted at him as he drove past: "Hey there, German hatter!" bawling at the top of his voice and pointing at him--the young man stopped suddenly and clutched tremulously at his hat. It was a tall round hat from Zimmerman's, but completely worn out, rusty with age, all torn and bespattered, brimless and bent on one side in a most unseemly fashion. Not shame, however, but quite another feeling akin to terror had overtaken him.

"I knew it," he muttered in confusion, "I thought so! That's the worst of all! Why, a stupid thing like this, the most trivial detail might spoil the whole plan. Yes, my hat is too noticeable. . . . It looks absurd and that makes it noticeable. . . . With my rags I ought to wear a cap, any sort of old pancake, but not this grotesque thing. Nobody wears such a hat, it would be noticed a mile off, it would be remembered. . . . What matters is that people would remember it, and that would give them a clue. For this business one should be as little conspicuous as possible. . . . Trifles, trifles are what matter! Why, it's just such trifles that always ruin everything. . . ."

He had not far to go; he knew indeed how many steps it was from the gate of his lodging house: exactly seven hundred and thirty. He had counted them once when he had been lost in dreams. At the time he had put no faith in those dreams and was only tantalising himself by their hideous but daring recklessness. Now, a month later, he had begun to look upon them differently, and, in spite of the monologues in which he jeered at his own impotence and indecision, he had involuntarily come to regard this "hideous" dream as an exploit to be attempted, although he still did not realise this himself. He was positively going now for a "rehearsal" of his project, and at every step his excitement grew more and more violent.

With a sinking heart and a nervous tremor, he went up to a huge house which on one side looked on to the canal, and on the other into the street. This house was let out in tiny tenements and was inhabited by working people of all kinds--tailors, locksmiths, cooks, Germans of sorts, girls picking up a living as best they could, petty clerks, etc. There was a continual coming and going through the two gates and in the two court-yards of the house. Three or four door-keepers were employed on the building. The young man was very glad to meet none of them, and at once slipped unnoticed through the door on the right, and up the staircase. It was a back staircase, dark and narrow, but he was familiar with it already, and knew his way, and he liked all these surroundings: in such darkness even the most inquisitive eyes were not to be dreaded.

"If I am so scared now, what would it be if it somehow came to pass that I were really going to do it?" he could not help asking himself as he reached the fourth storey. There his progress was barred by some porters who were engaged in moving furniture out of a flat. He knew that the flat had been occupied by a German clerk in the civil service, and his family. This German was moving out then, and so the fourth floor on this staircase would be untenanted except by the old woman. "That's a good thing anyway," he thought to himself, as he rang the bell of the old woman's flat. The bell gave a faint tinkle as though it were made of tin and not of copper. The little flats in such houses always have bells that ring like that. He had forgotten the note of that bell, and now its peculiar tinkle seemed to remind him of something and to bring it clearly before him. . . . He started, his nerves were terribly overstrained by now. In a little while, the door was opened a tiny crack: the old woman eyed her visitor with evident distrust through the crack, and nothing could be seen but her little eyes, glittering in the darkness. But, seeing a number of people on the landing, she grew bolder, and opened the door wide. The young man stepped into the dark entry, which was partitioned off from the tiny kitchen. The old woman stood facing him in silence and looking inquiringly at him. She was a diminutive, withered-up old woman of sixty, with sharp malignant eyes and a sharp little nose. Her colourless, somewhat grizzled hair was thickly smeared with oil, and she wore no kerchief over it. Round her thin long neck, which looked like a hen's leg, was knotted some sort of flannel rag, and, in spite of the heat, there hung flapping on her shoulders, a mangy fur cape, yellow with age. The old woman coughed and groaned at every instant. The young man must have looked at her with a rather peculiar expression, for a gleam of mistrust came into her eyes again.

"Raskolnikov, a student, I came here a month ago," the young man made haste to mutter, with a half-bow, remembering that he ought to be more polite.

"I remember, my good sir, I remember quite well your coming here," the old woman said distinctly, still keeping her inquiring eyes on his face.

"And here . . . I am again on the same errand," Raskolnikov continued, a little disconcerted and surprised at the old woman's mistrust. "Perhaps she is always like that though, only I did not notice it the other time," he thought with an uneasy feeling.

The old woman paused, as though hesitating; then stepped on one side, and pointing to the door of the room, she said, letting her visitor pass in front of her:

"Step in, my good sir."

The little room into which the young man walked, with yellow paper on the walls, geraniums and muslin curtains in the windows, was brightly lighted up at that moment by the setting sun.

"So the sun will shine like this then too!" flashed as it were by chance through Raskolnikov's mind, and with a rapid glance he scanned everything in the room, trying as far as possible to notice and remember its arrangement. But there was nothing special in the room. The furniture, all very old and of yellow wood, consisted of a sofa with a huge bent wooden back, an oval table in front of the sofa, a dressing-table with a looking-glass fixed on it between the windows, chairs along the walls and two or three halfpenny prints in yellow frames, representing German damsels with birds in their hands--that was all. In the corner a light was burning before a small ikon. Everything was very clean; the floor and the furniture were brightly polished; everything shone.

"Lizaveta's work," thought the young man. There was not a speck of dust to be seen in the whole flat.

"It's in the houses of spiteful old widows that one finds such cleanliness," Raskolnikov thought again, and he stole a curious glance at the cotton curtain over the door leading into another tiny room, in which stood the old woman's bed and chest of drawers and into which he had never looked before. These two rooms made up the whole flat.

"What do you want?" the old woman said severely, coming into the room and, as before, standing in front of him so as to look him straight in the face.

"I've brought something to pawn here," and he drew out of his pocket an old-fashioned flat silver watch, on the back of which was engraved a globe; the chain was of steel.

"But the time is up for your last pledge. The month was up the day before yesterday."

"I will bring you the interest for another month; wait a little."

"But that's for me to do as I please, my good sir, to wait or to sell your pledge at once."

"How much will you give me for the watch, Alyona Ivanovna?"

"You come with such trifles, my good sir, it's scarcely worth anything. I gave you two roubles last time for your ring and one could buy it quite new at a jeweller's for a rouble and a half."

"Give me four roubles for it, I shall redeem it, it was my father's. I shall be getting some money soon."

"A rouble and a half, and interest in advance, if you like!"

"A rouble and a half!" cried the young man.

"Please yourself"--and the old woman handed him back the watch. The young man took it, and was so angry that he was on the point of going away; but checked himself at once, remembering that there was nowhere else he could go, and that he had had another object also in coming.

"Hand it over," he said roughly.

The old woman fumbled in her pocket for her keys, and disappeared behind the curtain into the other room. The young man, left standing alone in the middle of the room, listened inquisitively, thinking. He could hear her unlocking the chest of drawers.

"It must be the top drawer," he reflected. "So she carries the keys in a pocket on the right. All in one bunch on a steel ring. . . . And there's one key there, three times as big as all the others, with deep notches; that can't be the key of the chest of drawers . . . then there must be some other chest or strong-box . . . that's worth knowing. Strong-boxes always have keys like that . . . but how degrading it all is."

The old woman came back.

"Here, sir: as we say ten copecks the rouble a month, so I must take fifteen copecks from a rouble and a half for the month in advance. But for the two roubles I lent you before, you owe me now twenty copecks on the same reckoning in advance. That makes thirty-five copecks altogether. So I must give you a rouble and fifteen copecks for the watch. Here it is."

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (March 2, 1993)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 565 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679734503
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679734505
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 900L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.19 x 1.07 x 7.93 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Russian & Soviet Literature (Books)
- #34 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- #113 in Literary Fiction (Books)

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Fyodor Dostoevsky

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Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (/ˌdɒstəˈjɛfski, ˌdʌs-/; Russian: Фёдор Миха́йлович Достое́вский; IPA: [ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ dəstɐˈjɛfskʲɪj]; 11 November 1821 – 9 February 1881), sometimes transliterated Dostoevsky, was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. Dostoyevsky's literary works explore human psychology in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmosphere of 19th-century Russia. Many of his works are marked by a preoccupation with Christianity, explored through the prism of the individual confronted with life's hardships and beauty.

He began writing in his 20s, and his first novel, Poor Folk, was published in 1846 when he was 25. His major works include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). His output consists of 11 novels, three novellas, 17 short novels and numerous other works. Many literary critics rate him as one of the greatest psychologists in world literature. His 1864 novella Notes from Underground is considered to be one of the first works of existentialist literature.

Born in Moscow in 1821, Dostoyevsky was introduced to literature at an early age through fairy tales and legends, and through books by Russian and foreign authors. His mother died in 1837, when he was 15, and around the same time he left school to enter the Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute. After graduating, he worked as an engineer and briefly enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, translating books to earn extra money. In the mid-1840s he wrote his first novel, Poor Folk, which gained him entry into St. Petersburg's literary circles.

In the following years, Dostoyevsky worked as a journalist, publishing and editing several magazines of his own and later A Writer's Diary, a collection of his writings. He began to travel around western Europe and developed a gambling addiction, which led to financial hardship. For a time, he had to beg for money, but he eventually became one of the most widely read and highly regarded Russian writers. His books have been translated into more than 170 languages. Dostoyevsky influenced a multitude of writers and philosophers, from Anton Chekhov and Ernest Hemingway to Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre.

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Customers find the book engaging and easy to read. They praise the intelligent writing and translation that keeps the integrity of the original work. The psychological depth and exploration of human nature are praised as profound and gripping. Readers appreciate the distinct characters with distinct voices. The design is described as beautiful, evocative, and charming. Overall, customers find the book provides an insightful education on the customs, mores, and history of 19th century Russia.

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118 customers mention "Readability"104 positive14 negative

Customers enjoy the book's readability. They find it interesting and well-written. Many describe the story as great and masterfully crafted, praising it as one of the best fictional novels they have ever read.

"...in the first 100 or so pages, and the rest of the novel is full of the thrilling drama that comes from the many conflicts and dilemmas that arise..." Read more

"...There's a magic that comes with reading Dostoevsky, and I cannot recommend the experience or reliving the experience enough." Read more

"...This novel will entertain you for hours, it is not too difficult to read and will provide you with questions to contemplate for hours while you are..." Read more

"...It’s super easy to understand and it’s great to read through." Read more

83 customers mention "Translation quality"67 positive16 negative

Customers find the translation of the book readable and intelligent. They appreciate the detailed descriptions and relatable characters. The writing is described as sophisticated yet simple to understand, making it an easy read for them.

"...Raskolnikov brought about a feeling of authentic representation and a feeling of self-actualization and self-awareness that makes me judge myself on..." Read more

"...Garnett, which on scanning the first few pages, had the stiffly sophisticated tone I'd come to expect from 19th century novels and a compulsive..." Read more

"...This novel will entertain you for hours, it is not too difficult to read and will provide you with questions to contemplate for hours while you are..." Read more

"I really like the book the way it Narrates. It’s super easy to understand and it’s great to read through." Read more

25 customers mention "Character development"22 positive3 negative

Customers enjoy the character development. They find the characters interesting, with distinct voices and personalities. The main character Raskolnikov is portrayed as intriguing. The book explores human nature and experiences through the character's thoughts, actions, and dialogue.

"...There are so many quotes, characters, quiet moments of self-reflection and questions about humanity and morality that still linger in me to this day..." Read more

"...me suffering from similar symptoms, and it was very interesting to see correlating personality traits between this person I know and Roskolnikov...." Read more

"...The characters are complex and relatable, making you reflect on your own values and decisions...." Read more

"...I thought it was going to be a complicated read. I enjoyed the characters and found the main character to be in the position of madness despite..." Read more

25 customers mention "Psychological depth"25 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's psychological depth engaging. They say it explores human nature, morality, guilt, and redemption. The portraits of transgression and cognition mixed with coincidence make for a powerful read that leaves readers reflecting on somber realities of life. Readers describe the book as evocative, thoughtful, and thought-provoking.

"...characters, quiet moments of self-reflection and questions about humanity and morality that still linger in me to this day, months after putting..." Read more

"...small dingy rooms, chance encounters, rapid action, and philosophically loaded dialogue; making it a heavy but never dense reading experience...." Read more

"...crafted story, displaying psychological quandaries, the questioning of morality, as well as exploring human beings and their unique experiences...." Read more

""Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a profound exploration of morality, guilt, and redemption...." Read more

15 customers mention "Design"12 positive3 negative

Customers appreciate the book's design. They find it appealing, evocative, and inspiring. The tale is described as colorful, with elements of crime, justice, romance, and coolness. Readers enjoy the paperback and sturdy pages.

"...a really great novel should be: entertaining, thought provoking, beautiful...." Read more

"...This Vintage Classics edition brings the story to life with its beautiful design and quality print...." Read more

"...Each scene, each page, is a masterpiece of setting, dialogue, and tension, making you physically uncomfortable at Rodion's plight yet creating an..." Read more

"...assists, epilogue, notes, info about the translators, eye-catching cover design by Richard Mendelsund. Love, love, love." Read more

8 customers mention "Advice"8 positive0 negative

Customers find the advice in the book helpful. They appreciate the philosophical underpinnings and appreciate the book's educational value on Russian customs and history. The book provides a useful introduction to the customs, mores, and history of 19th century Russia. It explores inner demons and inner struggles that all people face.

"...So reading Crime & Punishment proved to be a pretty good idea, and much to my delight it seemed a fairly universal notion amongst my undergraduate..." Read more

"...Dostoevsky was a religious man, and he included numerous Biblical references and even a section touching on the story where Jesus raised Lazarus..." Read more

"...The book is a fine education on the customs, mores and history of 19th century Russian society, on a number of levels...." Read more

"...movements of Dostoevsky's day as well as to obscure traditions and habits of Russians that would escape the reader's attention were it not for these..." Read more

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Customers find the book a good value for money. They say it's worth the purchase price and a good read for high school students.

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10 customers mention "Missing pages"0 positive10 negative

Customers find that some pages are missing or have letters missing. There are also misprints at the end of part 3, and there is no option to display page numbers in the Kindle format.

"...But towards the end of part 3, nearly 20 pages were misprinted, cutting off more than half a page. It made this part completely unreadable...." Read more

"...My chief complaint would be that there isn't an option to display page numbers in the Kindle format for this book...." Read more

"...I realized when reading that it was missing 32 pages...." Read more

"...but that this particular edition is missing pages 474-506...." Read more

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Vladimir L. Kelly
I will never be the same.
Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2023
Verified Purchase
"Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on Earth."

I can definitively say that Crime and Punishment is by far the best written work I have ever read. Never have I had an experience where I reached the word Epilogue and did not want to continue, knowing that if I finish this book, I would not have any sense of completeness or gratification, no sense of "what's next?" or excitement to read another book, but rather I knew for a fact that once I finished that Epilogue that there would be nothing in this world that would come close to this masterpiece.

The writing was outstanding. Every character has such a distinct voice that you know exactly who is talking without having to be told who it is redundantly. Every single character is complex and full of cognitive dissonance and moral/social questions and critiques. The world itself is a dark, gloomy, humid and disgusting forlorn depiction of late 19th century Petersburg, which only adds to the grim story.

Speaking of the story, the plot is a paper thin excuse to have the many complex characters interact in a gripping drama and has its "climax," so to speak, in the first 100 or so pages, and the rest of the novel is full of the thrilling drama that comes from the many conflicts and dilemmas that arise from the heinous crime that our main character commits, eventually culminating in an actual climax, though fittingly anti-climactic and realistic, in the final pages.

That main character being Raskolnikov. While all of the characters in this novel are absolutely genius, there was no character I resonated with more than Raskolnikov. For context, I have struggled with dissociations and intrusive thoughts all of my life, and the way Dostoevsky writes both dissociation and intrusive/obsessive thoughts so perfectly over and over and over without it growing stale or redundant/inaccurate is hauntingly beautiful. It goes to show just how much Dostoevsky suffered after staring down the barrel of the gun that was to execute him.

Raskolnikov has enough moral and social struggles within him for multiple people, for even a whole social movement, and that is because he is, in fact, two souls in the same body, or rather a body's soul delicately split in two. His contradictions and varying voices, thoughts, actions, and his eventual growth, healing, and acceptance are gripping, thrilling, beautiful, evocative, endearing, and above all else, inspiring. Seeing parts of myself in his character was chilling, knowing that I'm by no means the first or last person to do so, and seeing those parts of himself lead him down dark paths or to healing actually taught me a thing or two about myself. Raskolnikov brought about a feeling of authentic representation and a feeling of self-actualization and self-awareness that makes me judge myself on a more realistic level and keep my ego in check. But here I am writing a review for a literary classic, so am I really? Who's to say. Napoleon wouldn't leave this review.. I'm getting ahead of myself.

There are so many quotes, characters, quiet moments of self-reflection and questions about humanity and morality that still linger in me to this day, months after putting the book down. I have dreams about this book, about the ideas they showed me, about the world and its abundance of character. I will never love a book as much as I love this legendary masterpiece.

Luckily, I have read plenty of Pushkin, Lermontov, (of course) Dostoevsky, so on and so forth, so I have become rather familiar with Russian literature and how it is usually structured, specifically its dialogue, and how when it comes to detail in writing from the late 19th century, people wanted detail as it was one of their only forms of entertainment, and so the first big part of the novel consists of a rather lengthy one-sided conversation that would put off many readers who are used to a more streamlined experience but I guarantee if one simply gets through that long monologue, the book doesn't lose steam and only keeps becoming more investing and interesting. Trust me.

The only downside is that there will never be a written work, novella, short-story, graphic novel, whatever it may be, that will ever come close to the satisfaction, intrigue, self-awareness, reality checks, and gripping emotional storytelling that'll never leave my head that Crime and Punishment has.

I suppose that is the tragedy of it. Though, tragedy is inevitable for true and authentic happiness, and so it is that I am elated.

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Garrett O'Neill
Returning to Crime & Punishment
Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2013
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I was eighteen when I first read Crime & Punishment. It was the end of my freshman year of college and over the course of the last two semesters I had been introduced to a constant stream of new novels, authors and genres in and outside the classroom, accelerating me from an avid reader to a voracious one. Dostoevsky loomed large over a lot of the writers I loved at the time: particularly Hemingway and Kerouac. Crime & Punishment had already long been on my radar as a weighty Russian tome and one of the great works of world literature. So I was surprised by Bantam's pocket sized volume translated by Constance Garnett, which on scanning the first few pages, had the stiffly sophisticated tone I'd come to expect from 19th century novels and a compulsive readability presented in its breathless opening pages. Plus, it was on sale for something like five bucks, so what the hell.

That first reading of Crime & Punishment proved to be one of the most important literary experiences of my life. I read rapturously over the course of a few summer days, carrying the book about in a back pocket, and finished it around 6 am one morning. It seemed to me everything that a really great novel should be: entertaining, thought provoking, beautiful. A year of intro philosophy classes had convinced me I was some kind of original thinker, or at least a conscientious atheist. But Dostoevsky's take on spiritualism and religion gave me real pause; and despite a year's worth of railing against organized religion as the bane of all existence, the image of the murderer and prostitute reading the story of Lazarus together proved enormously powerful. In the end Crime & Punishment didn't convert me or bring me back to any kind of religious doctrine, but it did have a huge impact on the way I thought about fiction and viewed the world - a sensation I'm always looking for in books, but only a small handful have ever successfully accomplished.

So reading Crime & Punishment proved to be a pretty good idea, and much to my delight it seemed a fairly universal notion amongst my undergraduate peers. I can't think of many other books that have been read by so many people I've encountered and, maybe more astonishing, were deeply moved by it. Of course, there's always the stray dissenter. Vladimir Nabokov famously didn't think much of Dostoevsky, but then, he didn't like music either, so there's little accounting for taste.

For whatever reason, Dostoevsky started coming up in a lot of recent conversations, and it occurred to me that it had almost been a decade since my first and only read of Crime & Punishment. I've become well acquainted with a good deal of Dostoevsky's subsequent work, along with the writings of his fellow countrymen, so I knew it was vital to pick up the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky and, having become addicted to my Kindle Paperwhite, downloaded the e-book so I could recreate the read-on-the-go experience should the book sweep me up a second time.

To be honest, I was a little worried how well Crime & Punishment would stand up ten years later. After all, tastes change, and in the past I have been dismayed by how radically my opinion of a fondly recollected novel can take a turn for the worse on rereading. But from the opening description of Raskolnikov descending from his crappy little apartment into the streets of St. Petersburg I was hooked all over again.

But while I found all the major plot points and characters had stuck in my brain through the years, I was surprised how much smaller the novel's scale seemed; sort of like visiting a house that seemed enormous as a kid but shrunk in scale on visiting as an adult. In his introduction, Richard Pevear explains that Dostoevsky built the novel with the structure of theater in mind. I doubt I would have made this astute observation on my own, and yet it became the unavoidable lens I reread the novel through.

Crime & Punishment takes place in a very hermetic universe of small dingy rooms, chance encounters, rapid action, and philosophically loaded dialogue; making it a heavy but never dense reading experience. This philosophical bent tends to be the most common point of complaint amongst critics. Novels with a metaphysical agenda are often populated by flat characters who act as little more than mouthpieces for the author. Rascolnikov, in particular, is much more an idea than a person, whose true crime is his modern intellectual arrogance rather than the murder which derives from his hubris. But Dostoevsky populates his novel with a supporting cast that creates an incredibly rich illustration of 19th century poverty, as well as the existential comedy and despair that would color the coming century. Again, the Pevear introduction relates how Crime & Punishment grew out of an earlier novel, The Drunks, which Dostoevsky had been struggling with. It's the vestiges of this previous novel that are, for my money, the most fascinating aspects of Crime & Punishment, and reminiscent of another 19th century master, Charles Dickens.

Like a Dickens novel, Crime & Punishment contains enormously entertaining murder plot and, with the added philosophical heft, it's easy to understand why the novel is so appealing to undergrads. The aforementioned Dostoesky hater, Vladimir Nabokov, believed that a serious reader is, in fact, a rereader. For a long time I've found myself almost panicked by the overabundance of books I want and feel the need to read, and disregarding a few exceptions which I've obsessed over, I have never defined myself as much of a rereader. But this second look at Crime & Punishment has definitely changed how I'll choose to read in the future. There's a magic that comes with reading Dostoevsky, and I cannot recommend the experience or reliving the experience enough.

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Harry Faulkner
Possibly best book I’ve ever read.
Reviewed in Canada on January 12, 2025
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This is possibly the best book I’ve ever read, top three at least. The Translations are seamless, I would say this is a must read for everyone.

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Andrés Espinoza
Muy bueno
Reviewed in Mexico on December 23, 2024
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Muy bueno

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perfection
Reviewed in Brazil on April 25, 2024
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came fast and in perfect conditions

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Emily Helal
A psychological masterpiece that delves deep into the human psyche
Reviewed in Egypt on September 29, 2024
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In this Russian classic novel, Dostoevsky takes readers on a thought-provoking journey through morality, guilt, ego, redemption and the complexities of human nature.

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ann
awesome
Reviewed in Germany on December 6, 2022
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ive seen some posts and videos about kafka and dostoevsky for a while now and i could absolutely relate to what theyve written. and i saw a review about this book. it sounded interesting and kind of intrigued me. and even though im really not into reading books this was really worth it. like i love the book <33 definitely gonna buy more similar to this ! also watch bungou stray dogs (although they rlly dont have anything to do w each other, the anime was the first time i heard about dostoevsky and i liked him there. if i hadnt liked him in the anime i wouldnt have ended up reading up the author dostoevsky and his books, biography, etc :D)

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Crime and Punishment (Vintage Classics) Paperback – March 2, 1993

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5.0 out of 5 stars I will never be the same.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Possibly best book I’ve ever read.

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I will never be the same.

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Possibly best book I’ve ever read.

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A psychological masterpiece that delves deep into the human psyche

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