This year, I set a reading goal to get some of the “should reads” off of my TBR shelf. My “should read” books are classics that I feel as if I should have read in high school or college and either never got the opportunity, or just never took the opportunity. My goal for 2019 is to get 12 of those book titles off of my TBR list and onto my ‘Read’ Shelf by reading one title a month.
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My January book pick was Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.
February’s book pick was The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
March’s pick was Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Click here to read the introductory post.
My rating: *** out of 5 stars
My thoughts on the book
And I thought Dorian Gray was hard to get through! This book was much more dense. It was however, an intriguing story of a young, broke, college student, Rodion Raskolnikov, who decides to kill a local pawnbroker. In his mind, it was okay to kill her since she was a “louse” and since he needed the money. He rationalized to himself that the money would be put to better use if he had it than in her possession.
That is the beginning of Rodion’s demise. He kills the pawnbroker, and consequently her sister, Lizaveta, who surprised him by coming home early. Rodion justifies this murder to himself, since he had no choice once she saw him. After killing two old women, Rodion begins a frantic search for money and valuables when he hears a knock on the door. In a panic, he grabs a few Roubles and some jewelry and quickly makes his escape before anyone sees him. Rodion goes back to his one-room apartment and hides his loot behind some peeling wallpaper.
So begins Rodion’s illness. He goes into a fevered state and is bedridden for days. When he wakes up, his friend, Razumikhin is there, along with Nastasya, a servant in his apartment building that helps him out when he is ill. Rodion never fully recovers from that illness, and struggles with his health throughout the remainder of the book. Although he would never admit it, the illness is a result of his inner turmoil about the murders he committed. In his mind, they were completely justified, however, his spirit struggled with it and he was unhappy, disconnected and anxious through most of the book. That state of mind didn’t change until the end, when he finally turned himself in.
When I read the summary for this book on Amazon, it said it was a book about a college student that commits a murder and then turns himself in. That is true, but I guess I expected that he would turn himself in earlier. It didn’t happen until the very end of the book and his turn around in mental health and attitude came very soon afterwards.
Rodion was a very hard character to like. Besides the fact he was a murderer, he was cruel to those around him who loved him the most. His illness made him act erratic and his philosophies were off. There were times, however, when his actions showed a different side to him, a softer, kinder person than the one we are introduced to in the beginning of the book.
This book was very intriguing at times and then at other times it was very hard to get through. I felt that there was a lot of dialogue which slowed things down too much for me. There are also a lot of characters in the story. Their names are all Russian, of course, and some had a few variations of their names so it was hard for me to keep track of who everyone was.
Here is a summary of the most important characters in case you’d like to take this book challenge on!
Sonia (aka Sofya or Sonechka): This is Rodion’s love interest, although he doesn’t even realize that until the very end. She is probably my favorite of all the characters because she is such a good person. Sonia’s father is Marmeladov, an ex-public official who is now a drunk, spending every last of the family’s pennies on alcohol. Sonia has taken to prostitution to keep her step-mother and step-siblings fed. At one point in the story, Rodion gives her family some money that he had, and from that time on, Sonia was a great friend to him, no matter how he treated her afterwards.
Razumikhin: He is Rodion’s best friend from college, who comes to nurse him while he is sick. He brings him a doctor when he needs one and brings him along to parties to “rejoin humanity” when Rodion becomes somewhat of a recluse. Razumikhin was a good friend to Rodion, even if Rodion didn’t always treat him the best. He was also very good to Rodion’s mother and sister when they came to St. Petersburg to visit Rodion. Razumikhin falls in love with Rodian’s sister and the two end up getting married.
Dunya (aka Avdotya or Dunechka): Rodion’s sister, and good person. She is good to her mom and wants to help take care of the family since her father died, leaving them with no money. Dunya accepts Luzhin’s offer of marriage and the two are engaged until she finds outs what kind of person he truly is. She would not marry anyone she could not respect, regardless of their financial means. Dunya was previously employed as a governess by Sridrigailov, but was forced to leave by his wife when she found out that he had feelings for Dunya. Dunya left her situation in shame, but Sridrigailov finally corrected the misconception, that Dunya had anything to do with his advances. His wife then offered her apologies to Dunya, even leaving her 3000 Roubles upon her death.
Luzhin: He is the businessman engaged to Dunya, who Rodion sees through almost immediately. Luzhin is proud, in the worst sense. He wants respect for his position, whether he has earned it or not, and only wants to marry Dunya because she is beautiful and poor, which he thinks will keep her beholden to him. His true horrible nature is shown when he tries to frame Sonia for stealing 100 Roubles to prove to Dunya that she is a bad person. He is a man with no moral compass at all.
Sridrigailov – Dunya’s former employer who comes to St. Petersburg when his wife dies under suspicious circumstances. Sridrigailov loves Dunya and wants to see her again at any cost. He eavesdrops on Rodion and Sonia and finds out it was Rodion who killed the old pawnbroker. Sridrigailov tries to use this information to get to Dunya. Rodion will not succumb to this blackmail, but it adds to his already manic state, knowing that he could be turned in at any minute. Sridrigailov finally does meet Dunya and tricks her into coming back to his room with him, where he locks her in. He tells her that he could do whatever he wanted with her since no one was around and no one would believe her if she ever said anything. He does, however, finally let her go when he realizes she doesn’t love him back and he ends up committing suicide.
Porfiry Petrovich – Razumikhin’s cousin and magistrate in charge of investigating murders. Petrovich is the one who eventually figures out that Rodion is guilty of the double murder and goes to him to encourage him to turn himself in. Throughout the book, Rodion’s fragile mental state leads him to believe that Porfiry knows what he did and his guilt makes him do crazy things, like return to the scene of the crime and ask where all the blood is. This, in the end, does help Petrovich figure it out.
Answers to Questions
Who is the villain of the novel?
For sure, Luzhin and Sridrigailov are villains. Rodion also has little moral standing, but he does have moments of redemption. And at the end, we see that he makes a complete turn around. I don’t think I would classify him in the villain category. Marmeladov, although he caused his family much suffering, was not really a villain; he was haunted by his own demons and addictions.
What punishment comes about in the novel?
Rodion ends up in a work camp in Siberia at the end of the novel. He was sentenced to work off his crime for 8 years. But I think the punishment for him really came before he turned himself in. It was living with himself after the murders. It caused him to be ill. And worse than that, he almost lost all of the people he loved because of the way he treated them. His punishment of going was actually his salvation.
The film
I have to admit, I kind of cheated on this one. I watched the movie before I was finished reading the book. It helped me in the end, though, because after that I was able to keep the characters straight.
I watched the BBC version of the movie on Amazon Prime, Crime and Punishment (2002) starring John Simm. It was well done and followed the book pretty closely. There were a few minor variations, but overall, it was a good representation of the book.
If you don’t think you can handle the 400+ pages, I would definitely watch this movie. It’s free to watch for Amazon Prime members.
That’s it for my March Crime and Punishment Wrap Up! Stay tuned for April’s Reading Challenge Launch coming out later this week!
Until next time, happy reading!
I am happy you liked the book. Sonia was my favorite character too.
Yes. Her story was sad, but she was such a good person!