“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
Title: Crime and Punishment
Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
Genres: Classics, Literary, Historical Fiction
Length: 20hrs, 28 mins (Audiobook)
Published: 1866
My Rating: ★½
Read: 4/1/2023 – 4/13/2023
Review:
I know this is a classic and hailed as a great literary achievement… but I just wasn’t feeling it.
Raskolnikov murders two women, hailing himself a hero. He believes the world will be a better place, even though things hadn’t gone according to plan. As time goes on, deep-seated guilt slowly takes him over, especially as suspicion arises.
For a book nearly 700 pages long, there isn’t a lot of action or much of anything interesting in general. Maybe it was profound for its time, but I found it painfully boring compared to other books with similar themes. Part one was promising enough but then the rest of the book droned on. It just wasn’t for me.
Likes & Dislikes:
What I liked:
- Interesting historical view.
What I didn’t like:
- Raskolnikov was a boring protagonist, at least in a book of this length. The side characters were more interesting.
- The plot was dragged out longer than it needed to be.
- Too many characters to keep track of.
Afterthoughts:
I’m sure I’m in the minority here with this rating. Knowing it has such a place in literature I tried so hard to like it and find a deep philosophical connection. Maybe I tried too hard. There was too much telling and no showing.