Title: Crime And Punishment
Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
Genre: Fiction, Classic
Published: 1866
Original Language: Russian
BookMarks
"Crime and Punishment" is the story of Rodion Raskolnikov, a student in St. Petersburg, who commits murders and then suffers from its moral trauma. He is convinced that some crimes are justified for greater purpose, which is how most powerful people in history had risen. But his guilt makes him do things not easily justified till he finally confesses to his crimes.
Overall, quite a bleak tale of human suffering. There is sadness in the story and every new character coming into it just adds to the misery. Very few manage to retain a positive outlook or a semblance of happiness, as the story progresses into new depths of misery. Only the epilogue (set in Siberia!) does give a tiny sliver of hope that finally things may become alright!
Some quotes from the book
- There are chance meetings with strangers that interest us from the first moment, before a word is spoken.
- In order to understand any man one must be deliberate and careful to avoid forming prejudices and mistaken ideas, which are very difficult to correct and get over afterward.
- All great men or even men a little out of the common, that is to say capable of giving some new word, must from their very nature be criminals
- The vast mass of mankind is mere material, and only exists in order by some great effort, by some mysterious process, by means of some crossing of races and stocks, to bring into the world at last perhaps one man out of a thousand with a spark of independence.
- “poor man’s pride,” which compels many poor people to spend their last savings on some traditional social ceremony, simply in order to do “like other people,” and not to “be looked down upon.”
Overall, quite a bleak tale, trudged through
Previously on BookMarks: Mind Reader
