“A truly great translation . . . This English version . . . really is better.” —A. N. Wilson, The SpectatorNominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American ReadThis acclaimed new translation of Dostoyevsky’s “psychological record of a crime” gives his dark masterpiece of murder and pursuit a renewed vitality, expressing its jagged, staccato urgency and fevered … expressing its jagged, staccato urgency and fevered atmosphere as never before. Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders alone through the slums of St. Petersburg, deliriously imagining himself above society’s laws. But when he commits a random murder, only suffering ensues. Embarking on a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a suspicious police investigator, Raskolnikov finds the noose of his own guilt tightening around his neck. Only Sonya, a downtrodden prostitute, can offer the chance of redemption.
For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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Dostoyevsky is my absolute favorite author. I have read and re-read Crime and Punishment three times this year. It’s not simply a story but a narrative that places the reader inside the head of the main character. Simply love Dostoyevsky.
This was the first book I read on being released from the confines of education. I read it late in life. When I was in my late twenties, still playing serious rugby, full of myself and without a care to speak of. The story was a shock. I’d never given a thought to poverty, to the barrenness of ambition and the austerity of others I’d not witnessed or met. Yes, I was rich in many things but not in the awareness of deprivation and the cruel world beyond my own. The reading was a moral awakening.
Raskolnikov is pasted inside my mind as is his argument that some have a right to perform murder.
I believe this book above all others that I read fully or part of was why I began to write. John le Carré was my true inspiration but Raskolnikov is somewhere in the room when I write.
I don’t rate books on cleverness. I rate them on how well they paint and my enjoyment I get when reading. Begrudgingly I give this one 4 stars. It’s well written BUT I can only stand so much inner turmoil and angst. This is page after page after page, not my cup of tea. And I’m saying this just off the back of reading Jack London’s brutally dark collection. Glad I read it… But won’t be revisiting the author.
This is one of my all-time favorite books! It was so powerful and so engrossing. It is on my list of books I want to read again someday, and I can’t give much higher praise to a book than one I look forward to reading again! A true classic!
I read the Bantam Classics mass market paperback edition. I noticed some formatting issues, so that made me wonder about the accuracy of the translation… but whatever. While I would swipe right on Rodya, I’d still take the Underground Man over Raskolnikov on a psychos only dating app. I love these highly flawed, morally ambiguous characters. I mean… come on. I really don’t need to say more. Rodya squashed a louse.
If you can handle the grim world and psychology, and can get used to the vernacular and exaggerated emotions, this book is a great look into the different minds of people and their different responses to tragedy and hopelessness. I noticed the negative reviews were mostly by people who thought it was too depressing and/or slow. This book is NOT for people who don’t sometimes wonder how people with less than us live.
Great book! One of the best I ever read.
This is the story of a man named Raskolinkov a poor student that is caught between good and evil. He kills a pawn broker because he believes he is above the law. Guilt finally eats at him and he confesses and goes to jail. In jail he realizes his mistakes and realizes that suffering is his only means to happiness.
This book was boring. I was right – I thought it was boring. It was long and complicated. I didn’t really like any of the characters. Rodya always seemed dirty and sick, his mother clueless, and his sister just nonchalant about his whole situation. It was just….blah. I was glad when it was done.
Tedious & cumbersome
After reading this book many years ago, I decided to do a reread. I only got halfway through it this time because it was so depression and sad. I would recommend it to college students because it is a classic.
I read this book in high school (required reading). Hated it then, and still hate it. No one should recommend this extremely depressing garbage. Can’t give it 0 or -10 but wish I could.
Footnotes and explanations are helpful. Clearly intended for a British reader, though.
The best book I’ve ever read.
A masterpiece.
Superlative
Say no more. One of if not the first crime thriller ever written, by a master wordsmith from the “Golden Age of Russian Literature. Right up there with Tolstoy. Dostoevsky should be mandatory reading for either high school or College. Just one of his many great books.
A classic, literally.
By far one of the greatest pieces of literature. Insight into oppression of a people so loyal to their fatherland that, despite miserable odds, refused to give up. The characters become part of the reader’s life as they encounter and overcome the tragedies they faced. Genius transition of voice from chapter to chapter while witnessing the maturing philosophy of a 38 year old author.
Dostoyevsky lived through a Siberian prison camp yet came to adopt and describe a definition of divine grace so inclusive and encompassing that even the Gospels seem harsh in comparison.
His protagonist here is the aptly named Raskalnikov who is befriended by a ‘working gal’ with the proverbial heart-o-gold.
The story is nominally about a double-murder, its affect on our Raskal and his slow climb from retrobate to redemption through Sonya’s mercy and ministrations.
Truly tho, with Dostoyevsky one is being embedded among the Rus peasantry – feeling the entire weight of life in the mid-19th century.
The characters have stayed decades with me, the ambience is often in my nose and I can never forget the wholesale expansion of Grace Dostoyevsky deftly weaves into the novel with more elegance and less preaching than the slickest pulpiteer.
Well written, horrible, amazing