It’s dark, it’s twisted, it makes you think, and it’s a perfect example of what not to do if you are a broke ex-student. Dostoyevsky could definitely relate to being financially impaired, as he was when he decided to write Crime and Punishment.
Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov (his last name is actually translated as ‘to crack’), the protagonist, is the guy that you’d surely feel sorry for. He is jobless, his place is just too small and ugly looking, everything falls apart (and I don’t just mean his apartment), hence, his life is miserable. To have some change in his pockets Raskolnikov pawns his stuff for loans. And here we come to meet Alyona Ivanovna, aka the pawnbroker, aka the old lady that got axed. Ouch!
One day Raskolnikov just got fed up with his poverty and misery and decided to rob Alyona Ivanovna (yeah, bright idea!), because he knew, for certain, she had some money in her apartment. So, he grabs an ax, hides it under his coat and goes to her. But, she is not alone – her half-sister Lizaveta is also there. Surprise, surprise! And so, it turns into a double murder.
From this point on, Raskolnikov starts to fear his own shadow. He falls in and out of despair; tries to justify what he’s done. It’s very interesting to read what is going on in his mind: the twisted turns he makes, losing oneself. And, of course, there is a girl involved – Sonechka Marmeladova, the one that he confesses to. She sticks by him and becomes his conscious. The book is one of the darkest in Russian literature, the one that could actually be made into a graphic novel, I think. So…Broke students, fear not that you don’t have any money right now, just remember – things could always get worse!
Loved this book. It’s so intimate, personal, and desperate. Great internal novel.
thanks! would love to read this book.
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