Scan barcode
A review by elchivovivo
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
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.
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
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Antisemitism, Stalking, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis