I realized I hadn’t updated you on finishing Crime and Punishment. Now I feel bad because that actually happened a couple of weeks ago and I’ve since gone onto new books. I know everyone is dying to hear what I thought, because enough words haven’t been written in praise or criticism of it (that was sarcasm). And just to be clear, there are a few spoilers below, so continue at your own risk. I read a translation by Oliver Ready and published by Penguin Classics. I’ve read Russian literature before and like most people in the Western world, find it difficult to keep the characters’ names straight. I referred quite often to the list of names in the front of the book.
Anyway, the inner monologue of Raskolnikov takes some getting used to, but once you do, Dostoyevsky’s use of the technique portrays the main character’s hysteria and mania quite effectively. Not every author could make it work. The fact that certain people in his life, particularly his mother and sister, didn’t consign him to a mental hospital for his ravings seems to stretch credulity for someone swooping between sanity and insanity. The version I read was over 500 pages but it moved at a good pace. I enjoyed the book and yes, I can understand why it’s a classic. The themes of life and our actions and what we can and can’t do and how what we end up doing affects the people around us - well, there’s a lot to take in from this book.
That said, I’m not sure how I feel about the epilogue. I’m still digesting what it means for Raskolnikov to go to prison, fall deathly ill, recover, and reconcile with Sonya with a nod to the future. In some ways it seems at odds with the rest of the story. If Dostoyevsky had ended the book without an epilogue, would it have been better? Maybe. If the last lines of the book had been his confession, it would’ve made for great drama and questions. What happened to him after he admitted to the murders? Did he go to trial? Did Sonya stay or abandon him? Did he undergo an awakening? Obviously, the author decided to answer those questions in the epilogue. I wonder if they wouldn’t have been better off unanswered. Then again, I’m not a legendary Russian author, one of the giants of the genre. I enjoyed the book, though, and recommend it to anyone who’s considered reading it.