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 my first dive into the world of classic literature. I had never read any of Fyodor Dostoevsky's work, and had no idea what to expect going into this novel. I haven't been an avid reader in a couple years, but over the past few months I have read more books than I had in years. Crime and Punishment was a fantastic novel to reignite my love for reading. Richard Prevear and Larissa Volokhonsky’s translation of Dostoevsky's writing was fantastic, every sentence was crafted masterfully. Dostoevky has a way of creating the most complex and interesting characters I have ever met within the pages of a novel. One thing I felt was somewhat difficult throughout the novel was keeping all the characters straight. The names are all very long, and are Russian names, which for me, as an English speaker, sometimes they are hard to keep track of. The deeper I got into the novel, the easier it got. I never realized there were three different names people could go by in Russia until I read this novel, and that’s not including nicknames. Raskolnikov is one of the most interesting characters I think I have ever met in any form of entertainment. A very interesting aspect from my perspective was that Raskolnokiv, the main character, was clearly suffering from some type of mental illness, to me it seemed it was either bi polar disorder, and/or schizophrenia. In my life right now I know someone very close to me suffering from similar symptoms, and it was very interesting to see correlating personality traits between this person I know and Roskolnikov. I would most definitely recommend you read this novel. 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 not reading. There are certain sections in the novel that seem to drag on, but end up being filled with an abundance of important information that end up enhancing the novel. This novel will leave you craving to get back to it the moment you set it down. I found myself staying up much later than I had intended on multiple occasions due to getting lost in the pages of this book. Everything in this book feels so real. As someone who is interested in psychology and the human experience, reading about Raskolnikov trying to navigate human relationships while battling his inner turmoil was very interesting to see, and was very eye opening in many ways. This book taught me many lessons that can be applied to many different areas of my life, but most of it provided an immense amount of entertainment. This is definitely the type of novel you want a friend to be reading at the same time as you, to give you someone to discuss with. There are many complex ideas presented in the novel, especially by Raskolnikov, and diving into them with a friend would be a very enjoyable time. Crime and Punishment is a fantastic novel that I am so glad I read. It is a beautifully crafted story, displaying psychological quandaries, the questioning of morality, as well as exploring human beings and their unique experiences. Crime and Punishment definitely got me excited to read another work by Dostoevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov.”