Crime and Punishment

[anxietygerl18]

I just picked up the book Crime and Punishment....Im sure many of you are familiar with:P

I was wondering on tips on how to get in to it?
or any back ground info i should know?

I cant seem to get into it... I confess...

[sugarcrash56]

honestly, it was hard for me to get into it too.
i ended up reading 100 pages or so and never finishing it.
it's well written and all, but i dont think i'm mature enough to really understand and appreciate the writing.
if you're not enjoying reading it, stop, and come back to it later. i did that with the first Lord of the Rings book and ended up really enjoying it.

[Paulclem]

If you need to read it, I would read around it to get an idea of the themes within the book. Read some reviews or notes on it. I think there are some threads on it in this forum. Inform yourself about it, and if you still want to read it then give it a go.

[Manchegan]

I've found that the first third or so of most of my favorite novels is usually a little boring and difficult to read, but the classics generally pay off. They are worth the effort, and once you get used to the author's cadence, the reading gets easier. In the case of crime and punishment, the characters are extremely intriguing.

[Mathor]

Try Brothers Karamazov first. That will help you to appreciate Dostoevsky.

[Bastable]

The hardest part of reading it for me were the names which besides being foreign and therefor unfamiliar, were for some reason all very similar. But I just plowed through on my first go, which gave me a certain understanding and appreciation for when I read it a second time, much slower and much more comprehendingly. If you have an annotated copy it would assist your understanding immensely.

[kasie]

Even if your edition has a list of names at the beginning, it might be helpful for you to compile your own list as you read through the book. Russian names take some getting used to, as Bastable said, but it can be helpful to jot down the names and then add all the variations as you come across them in the text. Russian names have a first or given name, (Rodion) a patrynomic (?sp) (Romanovitch) or father's name and a family or surname (Raskolnikov); some translators keep to the Russian style of signifying male or female - Raskolnikov for a man becomes Raskolnikova for a woman, for example. Given names are often made into diminutives as a fond or familiar name, Rodion becomes Roddy.

Because of this initial unfamiliarity with names, you may find you are reading more slowly than you have been used to doing - I'd suggest just slowing down until you have got used to the names and the author's style, which may also be new to you, and I'm sure that once you are a third of the way into the story, you will be so gripped that you'll find you have mastered the names and the style and your reading will be flowing along as usual. Enjoy!

[Gladys]

Originally Posted by kasie

Even if your edition has a list of names at the beginning, it might be helpful for you to compile your own list as you read through the book.

I use a sticky tab on the character list page. I found the grim mood for the most of the book daunting.

Originally Posted by anxietygerl18

...any back ground info i should know?

Yes. Raskolnikov is decent man, who succumbs to the temptation of acting like Nietzsche's superman: the existential free thinker who throws off society's dubious moral shackles.

In the spirit of Napoleon, Raskolnikov kills 'a worthless Jewish woman' to show his independence of thought. So also with the dreadful Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov, the wealthy former employer and current pursuer of Dunya. But unlike Raskolnikov, Svidrigailov has overcome his own conscience.

[cidkid]

Wow that was incredibly rude.

She asked for background information not the gist of the whole book.