Crime and Punishment (Vintage Classics)

"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.

Crime and Punishment was always one of those books that I kept intending to get around to but for some reason always felt reluctant to actually start reading. I think to a certain extent I was intimidated by the book, by some hard to name quality that seems to accompany the truly great novels and writers. A list provided by my law school of recommended reads thankfully gave me the final push I needed to dive in and what I found was a book deserving of all the adulation it has received. Fyodor Dostoevsky does not need my endorsement and I scarcely think anybody considering picking up this book will look at my support as a deciding factor. More likely than not, the undecided would-be-reader is trying to decide between the various editions and versions. In this respect, I cannot recommend this edition strongly enough. The translation work is exceptional and it is almost easy to forget that this was originally written in Russian. I have seen in a few other reviews (which sold me on this edition) the praise for the footnotes and I echo this applause. The book is filled with little acknowledgements of political and philosophical 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 helpful notes. These notes are perhaps not essential to a grasp of the larger themes of the book, but it informs certain situations with added meaning that one might otherwise miss (not to mention, it just helps satisfy curiosity as to what certain things are). Personally, this is enough to set this edition above all the rest. As to the substance of the novel itself, Crime and Punishment is a masterpiece. It is a searing portrait of a person besieged by his own delusions of grandeur, the competing philosophical rationalizations that make it possible, and the psychology of both crime and punishment (obviously enough on this last part). The narrative is bleak and offers few moments of respite from an overwhelmingly unhappy tale but the journey into Raskolnikov's mind is worth it. I fully endorse this book more broadly and this edition of it more specifically. 500+ pages never went by so quickly!

came fast and in perfect conditions

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.

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)

The book came with dirty finger marks on it. Since it’s white it was quite visible. But with extra care the dirty marks were removed.

come si fa a recensire un libro? troppo personale, troppo soggettivo. mi limito a dire che è arrivato in tempo, bene imballato, tutto ok.