Reviews with content warning for Murder - Verbrechen und Strafe: Roman

It is hard to rate what one knows to be a tower of Literature. And I could not and would not attempt to compartmentalize the reading of the Book with the knowledge of its importance.

Dostoievsky sits with the absolute greatest of the Letters, and his Novels stand on pedestals. The pedestal of a trophy. The pedestal of a monument.

On the contrary, the knowledge of its importance was the driving excitement behind it. By reading it I felt to be swimming in the River of History, and swimming along the greatest minds, allowing myself to be passed the same Fire.

And it is Fire. One can feel the pages bursting through centuries of old form, as the thoughts of its characters are splattered into the pages like the splatter of an axe-murder and the crumbling of a thousand year dinasty, and the underground rumblings of a still far-off revolutions.

Reading the two Russians shakes the soul. What Tolstoy does in landscape strokes, Dostoievsky does in VanGogh-like manic splatters of thought.

And it is a perfect and complete novel, in the sense that it is absolutely closed and tied down. It does not have moments, but its full force only arrives at the very last word. And it makes the body tremble.

Content Warnings

mushroombee's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

miss22's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

the fact that the murderer was not the worst person in the book was shocking

if svidrigailov has no haters, i’m dead

Content Warnings

king_a088's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It is a hard read it took me a long time to get through it but I did not regret any second reading it it changed my point of view in several ways and gave me something that only this book could. I thing everyone should read it at least once in their lives.

Content Warnings

seapotatohowisitalrtaken's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

atalea's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Content Warnings

More...