Crime and Punishment (1866)

This review is of the Garnett English translation.

Usually a translator has to find some place between delivering accuracy of the meaning of the words and providing a sense of the artistry of the text in its original language. Garnett leans pretty far to the accuracy side, at the expense of the artistry of the language. Thus, one gets a very clear rendering of the story, but somewhat less of an idea of how it would 'sound' in the original Russian. There is a somewhat stilted feel to the language in this translation, but not enough to outweigh the value of an accurate rendering.

I will not try to add to the large body of reviews of this work, except to challenge the reader to identify the point in the novel where the punishment in "Crime and Punishment" begins.

Os. ( )

Great writing, preposterous "protagonist"...slow to start, annoying ending ( I thought). A whole cast of deplorable characters, but interesting once you get to the crime. Fantastically suspenseful in parts, but action often stalled by huge monologues (many interior) - although these are certainly integral to the story. WTF to give this? hmmmm I guess it makes you think...maybe all the way to the shotgun cabinet, and as you write the suicide note... 3.75? A book to remind me how much I can't stand human beings. :/ But I liked it, & am glad I read it! Maybe best if you think of it more as a philosophical exercise & less as a believable novel? ( )

I found this book to be much easier to read than most classics. The personalities and culture took a little getting used to, but became endearing after a while. The language was sometimes confusing, but not unbearably so. I do think this book is worth reading. ( )

It took me a long time to read Crime and Punishment. Partly because I was moving away from home at the time, and partly because it's quite intense, and thoughtful, and, well, psychological. I found it interesting how realistic parts of it were, in terms of how people act: Dostoyevsky knew what he was writing about, certainly. At the same time, the people are quite strange -- the investigator, always talking and spilling out his thoughts; the main character, always talking to himself; Mrs Marmeladov with her strange delusions... They all seem a little bit larger than life. It certainly gives them a life of their own, anyway.

In terms of the writing, the repetitions of things and the stating of the obvious and the sameness to the eccentricity of the characters somewhat bored me. Large chunks of it are just Raskolnikov dithering around and being delirious.

I can see why this is considered a great book, but I can't quite give it a whole-hearted "it was amazing" rating. It's something I might read again to ponder over some more. ( )

Read this in high school senior English, before I had studied Russian. I recall confusion about the names, and that it was depressing. Perhaps this is the reason I have yet to read The Brothers Karamazov. ( )