10/10I just finished this book about two weeks ago. It was fantastic. It is a story about a 23-year-old man who decides that he wants to murder an old woman. He gets it into his head that there are certain elite individuals who are above the law and cannot be contained by it. Good causes that are against the law should not hold back the man who is extraordinary. He chooses the old woman as his victim after an unpleasant visit with her and after overhearing a subsequent conversation that this old woman should be killed for the betterment of society. He decides that he will kill this old woman for a good cause and is probably convinced that he is above the law and views himself as extraordinary.
At the end of Part 1 is when he commits the grisly murder involving a hatchet. Dostoyevsky's description of the murder is not for the faint of heart. The Punishment, which consists of the remainder of the book, comes about by the complete disconnect the young man feels from the world. He can no longer have personal relationships with anybody due to his secret. He has spurts of madness and deeply wishes that he had the power to confess his crime, which he comes close to doing many times. He thought he would be the same person after the crime because he is extraordinary, but he learns that this is not the case.
The conversations between the young man and a police inspector that happen many times in the book are fascinating. The investigator is very Sherlock Holmesish in the way he is able to deduce motives and actions. They have some interesting philosophical discussions where the investigator tortures the young man by hinting that he knows he is the murderer without coming out and saying it.
I haven't read anything that gets inside the mind of a madman/criminal better than this, besides, maybe, some stuff by Edgar Allan Poe. The tortured nature of the main character is very well done, unpredictable, and very convincing. The book shows how much suffering takes place when a man has something wicked hidden up inside himself. The book ends in a positive note with redemption and hope for a new life.
Some fun quotes:
From the first page: "I should like to know what people fear most: - whatever is contrary to their usual habits, I imagine."
"He never indulges in raillery...because he disdains to waste his words."
"A man who is really great, it seems to me, must suffer considerably here below."
"Drowning men, it is said, cling to wisps of straw!"
"A courageous man ought not to fear disgrace."
"A new life is not given for nothing; that it has to be paid dearly for, and only acquired by much patience and suffering, and great future efforts."
4 comments:
John, I'm right there with you on Crime and Punishment. What a sweet book. Fyodor D. is my favorite author, so I thought I should give a shout-out. The conversations in his stories are so great. If you liked "Crime and Pun," I can guarantee you'll like The Brothers Karamazov even more.
I've heard that The Brothers Karamazov is considered his best book. I bet I would like it as well. How's his other stuff? I've heard good things about The Idiot.
I guess I'll post this here, just to assure it's on the annals. I just finished reading "The Monarch Notes" on Crime and Punishment. A cute 100 page Cliffs Notes type of a deal. It was rather insightful and actually pretty cool to read. And now it is in the annals. I didn't think it deserved its own blog post, so only the most observant will ever read this. My guess is no one will. But it is recorded and is etched in stone, as it were.
Yeah, I liked Brothers Karamazov the best. It has a lot of cool religious questions. The only other ones I've read are The Gambler, Demons, and Notes from the Underground. Nothing like Crime and Punishment or Brothers Karamazov, but still full of sweet dialogue and funny characters.
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