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A review by alisarae
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Enough nights of insomnia and I finally finished!! It actually isn't that long or difficult of a book... it just took me nearly a year because of the medium I was using (kindle app on my phone). I liked it!
I thought it was interesting to see how interested Dostoyevsky was in criminal psychology. The characters talked about it frequently amongst themselves. This was first published in 1866 and the first Sherlock Holmes story was published 20 years later in 1887. For further context, the earliest influential books on the subject of psychology (as separate from philosophy and physiology) were published in 1874 (Principles of Physiological Psychology by Wilhelm Wundt) and 1890 (The Principles of Psychology by William James).
Another element that drew my attention was the mirror image of the Christ figure that Rodya represents at the end. He jokes about taking up his cross and he dons a crucifix, he is trailed to the judgement seat by a harlot, he feels that he is resurrected after making up his mind about the confession.... Of course in the epilogue he has a true conversion experience, but I liked the subversion up until that point.
I had a big problem with the names of the characters. Each character has three names plus a handful of nicknames and it seems that which of the 3-6 names are used to refer to the character is completely random. Besides that, many of the characters have a name overlap. There are even multiple jokes in the book where characters can't remember each other's names. I think the name overlap is to purposefully posit the moral and immoral characters against each other in the reader's mind... but it is so confusing.
Although this seems to have no connection whatsoever to the rest of the story, the following passage from the epilogue made me really sit up. As I was alternating between looking at twitter #COVID19 and reading...
"He was in the hospital from the middle of Lent till after Easter. When he was better, he remembered the dreams he had had while he was feverish and delirious. He dreamt that the whole world was condemned to a terrible new strange plague that had come to Europe from the depths of Asia. All were to be destroyed except a very few chosen. Some new sorts of microbes were attacking the bodies of men, but these microbes were endowed with intelligence and will. Men attacked by them became at once mad and furious. But never had men considered themselves so intellectual and so completely in possession of the truth as these sufferers, never had they considered their decisions, their scientific conclusions, their moral convictions so infallible. Whole villages, whole towns and peoples went mad from the infection. All were excited and did not understand one another. Each thought that he alone had the truth and was wretched looking at the others, beat himself on the breast, wept, and wrung his hands. They did not know how to judge and could not agree what to consider evil and what good; they did not know whom to blame, whom to justify. [...] The most ordinary trades were abandoned, because everyone proposed his own ideas, his own improvements, and they could not agree. The land too was abandoned. Men met in groups, agreed on something, swore to keep together, but at once began on something quite different from what they had proposed. They accused one another, fought and killed each other. There were conflagrations and famine. All men and all things were involved in destruction. The plague spread and moved further and further. Only a few men could be saved in the whole world. They were a pure chosen people, destined to found a new race and a new life, to renew and purify the earth, but no one had seen these men, no one had heard their words and their voices."
I thought it was interesting to see how interested Dostoyevsky was in criminal psychology. The characters talked about it frequently amongst themselves. This was first published in 1866 and the first Sherlock Holmes story was published 20 years later in 1887. For further context, the earliest influential books on the subject of psychology (as separate from philosophy and physiology) were published in 1874 (Principles of Physiological Psychology by Wilhelm Wundt) and 1890 (The Principles of Psychology by William James).
Another element that drew my attention was the mirror image of the Christ figure that Rodya represents at the end. He jokes about taking up his cross and he dons a crucifix, he is trailed to the judgement seat by a harlot, he feels that he is resurrected after making up his mind about the confession.... Of course in the epilogue he has a true conversion experience, but I liked the subversion up until that point.
I had a big problem with the names of the characters. Each character has three names plus a handful of nicknames and it seems that which of the 3-6 names are used to refer to the character is completely random. Besides that, many of the characters have a name overlap. There are even multiple jokes in the book where characters can't remember each other's names. I think the name overlap is to purposefully posit the moral and immoral characters against each other in the reader's mind... but it is so confusing.
Although this seems to have no connection whatsoever to the rest of the story, the following passage from the epilogue made me really sit up. As I was alternating between looking at twitter #COVID19 and reading...
"He was in the hospital from the middle of Lent till after Easter. When he was better, he remembered the dreams he had had while he was feverish and delirious. He dreamt that the whole world was condemned to a terrible new strange plague that had come to Europe from the depths of Asia. All were to be destroyed except a very few chosen. Some new sorts of microbes were attacking the bodies of men, but these microbes were endowed with intelligence and will. Men attacked by them became at once mad and furious. But never had men considered themselves so intellectual and so completely in possession of the truth as these sufferers, never had they considered their decisions, their scientific conclusions, their moral convictions so infallible. Whole villages, whole towns and peoples went mad from the infection. All were excited and did not understand one another. Each thought that he alone had the truth and was wretched looking at the others, beat himself on the breast, wept, and wrung his hands. They did not know how to judge and could not agree what to consider evil and what good; they did not know whom to blame, whom to justify. [...] The most ordinary trades were abandoned, because everyone proposed his own ideas, his own improvements, and they could not agree. The land too was abandoned. Men met in groups, agreed on something, swore to keep together, but at once began on something quite different from what they had proposed. They accused one another, fought and killed each other. There were conflagrations and famine. All men and all things were involved in destruction. The plague spread and moved further and further. Only a few men could be saved in the whole world. They were a pure chosen people, destined to found a new race and a new life, to renew and purify the earth, but no one had seen these men, no one had heard their words and their voices."