Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

[KevinMcCabe]

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is undoubtedly one of the best Russian classics you can find. It gives a great picture about human's alienation of the society. What do you think about it? I even wrote a blog post on it.

 

Edited June 5, 2019 by KevinMcCabe
Added related blog post

[KevinMcCabe]

His approach on loneliness is unique. For example this quote:
Fyodor Dostoyevsky — “Why, the isolation that prevails everywhere, above all in our age—it has not fully developed, it has not reached its limit yet. For every one strives to keep his individuality as apart as possible, wishes to secure the greatest possible fullness of life for himself; but meantime all his efforts result not in attaining fullness of life but self-destruction, for instead of self-realization he ends by arriving at complete solitude. All mankind in our age have split up into units, they all keep apart, each in his own groove; each one holds aloof, hides himself and hides what he has, from the rest, and he ends by being repelled by others and repelling them. He heaps up riches by himself and thinks, ‘How strong I am now and how secure,’ and in his madness he does not understand that the more he heaps up, the more he sinks into self-destructive impotence. For he is accustomed to rely upon himself alone and to cut himself off from the whole; he has trained himself not to believe in the help of others, in men and in humanity, and only trembles for fear he should lose his money and the privileges that he has won for himself. Everywhere in these days men have, in their mockery, ceased to understand that the true security is to be found in social solidarity rather than in isolated individual effort. But this terrible individualism must inevitably have an end, and all will suddenly understand how unnaturally they are separated from one another. It will be the spirit of the time, and people will marvel that they have sat so long in darkness without seeing the light.”
 

[Angury]

On 6/5/2019 at 9:51 PM, KevinMcCabe said:

His approach on loneliness is unique. For example this quote:
x
 

 

What is it about that quote that stands out to you as unique?

 

(Not arguing with you, just interested in your point of view!).

[KEV67]

I am reading Crime and Punishment, but I am finding it a slog. I am not enjoying it.

[Brian.]

10 hours ago, KEV67 said:

I am reading Crime and Punishment, but I am finding it a slog. I am not enjoying it.

How far in to it are you? I usually advise people to give a book 50-100 pages before abandoning it but with Crime & Punishment I would probably give it a bit more time. I’m currently reading it for a third time but I do remember struggling with it the first time I read it. However, once I had finished it I just couldn’t get it out of my head and it’s a book I still think about on a regular basis 10 years after the first read.

[KEV67]

37 minutes ago, Brian. said:

How far in to it are you? I usually advise people to give a book 50-100 pages before abandoning it but with Crime & Punishment I would probably give it a bit more time. I’m currently reading it for a third time but I do remember struggling with it the first time I read it. However, once I had finished it I just couldn’t get it out of my head and it’s a book I still think about on a regular basis 10 years after the first read.

I am on page 467. I will get through it, but it feels like homework.

[timebug]

One of the very few books that I abandoned, just short of the halfway mark. It defeated me, I just could not engage with it beyond a certain point.

[lunababymoonchild]

1 hour ago, timebug said:

One of the very few books that I abandoned, just short of the halfway mark. It defeated me, I just could not engage with it beyond a certain point.

That's a shame. I've ony read it once but like Brian, it's stayed with me and I intend to read it again. I don't doubt that I'll get more out of it the second time around and very much look forward to that. Some books suit you and some don't.

[KEV67]

It is just so bleak. There are good chapters in it, but it is not a fun read. I think some things do not come across so well in translation. Sometimes a character has an eccentricity, or uses figures of speech. Maybe they have some way of speaking associated with their social position or profession. I expect it rings true in Russian, but not so much in English.

[KEV67]

Jordon Peterson sometimes goes on about Dostoevsky. He searches deep into people's miserable souls. Rodion Romanych has done something very, very bad for a not very good reason. This alone would put anyone with a conscience under stress. It reminded me a bit of The Talented Mr Ripley, only with that book I felt more under stress than Tom Ripley, because he is not burdened with a conscience.

[KEV67]

Well I finished it. Rodion's mother is rather like mine. Whenever I indulge a homicidal fantasy I always think how distressed and disappointed my parents would be.