Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Pages: 656
Format: Paperback
Published: 1866
Publisher: Penguin Classics
View on Goodreads
Date Completed: May 18, 2025
My rating: 
Thoughts
I think I’ve always avoided books like this because reading classics, especially those translated from other languages into English, can be daunting. But I was pleasantly surprised at how easy to read this book was. Although it’s a bit longer (but by no means Dostoyevsky’s longest, by far), the pacing is pretty good and kept my interest the whole way through.
I’ve always known the story in broad terms – guy commits murder, basically gets away with it, but his punishment is his own conscience and paranoia. Raskolnikov is a really interesting character, with good, albeit questionable, motives in his choice of murder victims. Okay, self-serving motives. I guess you can’t really have “good” motive for committing pre-meditated cold-blooded murder. But basically he just wants to finish university and make a positive impact on society.
There are too many characters to give each their due here, but I’ll try to touch on a couple. Razumikhin, Raskolnikov’s best friend, felt like kind of a nothing character to me. He was there all the time and was so willing to help Raskolnikov and his family that I wonder if Razumikhin had a family of his own.
I could probably have done without Svidrigailov and Luzhin. Neither really added to Raskolnikov’s story and could have been left out without much effect on the overall story. The Marmeladov storyline was sad, as I’m sure it was intended. Especially since Marmeladov himself, but more specifically his daughter Sonia, lead Raskolnikov to his redemption.
And I was a bit torn on the character of the police inspector, Porfiry Petrovich. We pretty much know that Porfiry knows that Raskolnikov committed the murder, and Raskolnikov thinks Porfiry knows, but isn’t too sure. And Porfiry goes on playing this cat-and-mouse game with Raskolnikov to try to get Raskolnikov to just confess to the murder already. Porfiry could at times be a really fun and funny character and at other times could get kind of annoying. At any rate, what is a story about crime and punishment without the police involved?
All that said, I give this a strong 4.5 out of 5 stars. It is a classic for a reason and deserves its place as one of the great classics. Although it could have benefitted from some editing, who am I to judge what should stay and what should go. I’m hoping to get to another Dostoyevsky in the next six months or so after which I’ll move onto some Tolstoy next year.
