Crime and Punishment

This review contains spoiler information.

Crime and Punishment is a realist novel by Russian author Dostoyevsky. This book is considered one of the tops of realism. Separated to six chapters by approximately one hundred pages, it looks really huge and fat, but actually it’s very readable and you can easily fall into the story.

The first one hundred pages bring the reader into the St. Petersburg of the 19th century, nothing important happens though. Then the big thing finally happens, as Raskolnikov decides to kill Alyona Ivanovna. After murdering the old lady, there’s another hurdle for Raskolnikov – Alyona’s sister, who comes home early. Killing her too is the easiest solution for him. Then he gets out of the flat and somehow everything works for him (lucky guy). However, when he starts thinking of what he actually did, he feels bad, suspicious and just awful. Also he’s stupid enough to ignore his friend(s?). During that horrible time of his, he comes across a very extraordinary family of Mr. Marmeladov. He visits them for some time, but once, Marmeladov runs right in front of the coach and is injured critically. Raskolnikov gives the money he had received from his caring mother to Marmeladov’s wife and kids. Although, his funeral is some kind of freak show and the widow gets desperate and so does her step daughter as she falls in love with cold hearted Raskolnikov. He doesn’t want to talk with her, nor with his mother and sister.

Avdotya (Dounia) and Pulcheria are in St. Petersburg, because Dounia is supposed to marry some man called Luzhin. Raskolnikov hates that guy, and persuades Dounia to call the wedding off. Meanwhile, solving the case isn’t going well for Petrovich, the detective. However, he’s convinced that Raskolnikov did it. There are no proofs though. Raskolnikov confesses to Sonya, yet she can’t believe it. His friend Razumikhin and sister Dounia are getting along quite well, so they’re in 19th century Russian­ style relationship and probably soon before marrying each other. When Sonya tells Raskolnikov to go and confess, he indeed does that. Anyway, Raskolnikov has to go work to Siberia.

I personally found the book incredibly interesting due to the inner monologues of Raskolnikov and the story itself. Anyway, the language was quite difficult to read, but that might have been just the Russian-Czech traslation flaw. I would recommend this book to anybody who's interested in the history of society because the living style of the Russians of the 19th century is pictured perfectly. Amazing book!!!