Crime and Punishment

[paul]

dostoevsky was paid for EACH and every word published! that should sayit all about the longwindedness of crime and punishment

[janelle]

I completely agree. I had a horrible time trying to finish it. The interesting stuff just left way too fast.<br><br>Its like those old English books... where they describe every intricate detail in a room. I mean, come on, do we really need to know that the aqua colored french pillow, 12 inches by 13 inches, was made with cotton, stuffed with rags and picked up in chile by Maraget's aunt, who had long, white hair pulled into a simple bun with a comb in it for decoration. And by the way, the comb was of tortoise shell. some think its 100 years old, but i think it's 1000! Her aunt was stout and gray with a small line above her eyebrow. this line was in fact a scar that she recieved when she was just a little girl. her brother and her were playing with swords, which were silver-painted made by sticks that they had found in the woods, and she feel off of the sea-green leather couch, onto the luscious royal purple carpet (which had bare spots near the wall), and onto the solid oak coffee table that her mother, maragret's grandmother, had recieved from her good friend marsha for her 30th birthday. Margaret's aunt, on that day so long ago, fell onto a tray of crumpets. the crumpets were like those she had never seen! they were baked with 3 cups of flour, 4 tbs of salt, 2 litres of water.....<br><br>what the heck! why not say it was a nice cushion!

[Andy]

maybe tv and not reading is not what you should be doing with your time. i think raskolnikov is one of the few people who can feel. he has a conscience, he just doesnt like you. he cares about his sister and mother and human tragedies resulting in destitution and death, he dislikes those who are only concerned with social influence.<br><br>do you mean to tell me that you felt nothing when you read about sonya and raskolnikov? she loved him because she could understand his desperation and he loved her because he understood her devotion to those she cared about and was willing to sacrifice her life for them. <br><br>what do you think is more important, something that happens to you physically or the way that it affects your mind? which is the real event? have you ever felt something was incredibly important although it seemed like a minor detail? <br><br>sometimes you have to plow through a few descriptions of coffee tables to get to whats really important. but maybe you skimmed by all these parts because you were so eager to get to the end of this 400 (!!) page book you were never really interested in in the 1st place just so you could "say you read it". maybe youre missing a soul as well as a brain. <br><br>and if all this is being too old then i dont wanna be young.

[greg]

Dear Sara,<br>if you do not understand the book, it does not worth saying that it is bad or dull. <br>D. did not write for people engaged in consumption and entertainment only; please do not torture yourselves with reading D., relax and shop yourselves something <br>

[Unregistered]

Janelle, Thank you, I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. You are absolutely right. It just has a LITTLE to much unecessary detail.

[Billy Bob]

That was the best analysis of C & P I've ever read!

[Unregistered]

I think when you said 'I am not a scholar' you summed yourself up perfectly. Maybe you should read something easier like Dr. Suess.

[Unregistered]

I feel sorry for all the people out there that were unable to grasp the meaning behind Crime and Punishment. You either have to be quite young or quite a young soul. I hope it's not the latter, or you might have to come back a few more times and try life over and over again to get it right. I'd hate to imagine what kind of a mess you have for a life, the fortunate thing is that you wouldn't notice it.

[peter tinyup]

Indeed Janelle, you are right, yet you are wrong. Maybe, just maybe, the unecessary detail was infact just a little bit beyond the meaning and plot, perhaps it wasnt written at all, just thought and believed by an author and the pen strokes were the exhaltions of the breathing of madness. Perhaps if you don't understand what you read, you should just listen to greg and maybe stick to comics or go shopping, maybe get a facial. But please do belittle the genius of reason relayed through madness.

[A]

By reading your analysis, I can tell why you are not a scholar!

[MASHA]

Yeah I agree with this comment. I think what happens is that people didn't have a lot of interesting things to do during the 1700s, 1800...They didn't have TV , Broadway shows, 6 Flags,they couldn't go to Miami for a weekend, and all that kind of recreations ... So they had to entertain themselfs by reading books as long as they could. That is why authors made such long books ... It was interesting to read Crime and Punishment ( I am Russian I just felt that I HAVE TO READ IT) but it felts SO boring towards the last chapters... and its true there was no great mystery to it at all ....

[Unregistered]

Okay, maybe you didn't like the book, everyone has an individual opinion, but to say there is nothing to analyze? You obviously know nothing about the subject. After reading this novel at one of the most diffiucult highschools in the nation, we analyzed it from front to back. It was through this process that the story can be truely appreceiated and understood. Obviously you didn't understand it, if you didn't really even analyze, so how could you like it? over half the book has an underlying meaning that is far too out of your reach for one to comprehend. so go ahead and say you didn't particularlly like it, but don't say there's nothing to analyze, it only makes you look really ignorant to those of us who know better.

[Unregistered]

Since you feel so sorry for those who are "unable to grasp the meaning behind Crime and Punishment" I personally felt the need to respond. First of all, i couldnt stop laughing when i read that. Not only did i laugh, but i deeply feel sorry for you. Life is more than a book written in 1866 in Russia, which, by the way, was incredibly depressing. Perhaps I will "come back a few more times and try life over and over again to get it right" but I promise you sweetie that my life is WONDERFUL compared to that of which i have imagined you living. I am speechless... I just wish there were words to describe how hard I was laughing when I read that.

[suds]

psssshhhhh all u ppl who sit here at these forums to discuss books in ur spare time - i mean, thats great and all - really intelligent....but c'mon now - when u start dissing other ppl cuz they dont like the book and u do - well, i mean u have no lives!!!!!! geez, ppl! and ppl=people for those of u who dont have any lives. HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

[gatormak]

It is incredibly egotistical and ignorant to assume that one's take on a piece of art, literature, film, television, etc is the right point of view. It is personal expression judged by persons. I was often bored during the main text of C&P, and I did force myself to read on at times through the overindulgence of description of superfluous characters and scenery. Once I finished the book though, I found myself thinking about human nature, motivations, psychosis, love, conscience, humanity, and really all that makes one a human being. The points are somewhat vague, but rightly so. I'd ask again, how is one person's view about life or people the right point of view? The fact that the book can be argued about makes it at least good. It insighted everyone here to log on and discuss and even argue. Above all, to think.

[Sarah Ch]

ha my name is the same as Sarah C and i completely agree!!!!!!!! its like crime.....400 pages..........punishment now isnt that a great summary so much for superhuman, the city nihilism, aleination from society, and poverty i say read the title and u pretty uch have the book lol

[RaRa]

I read this book last year when I was 12 years old!!! Even I think I got the meaning better then most, but it was still a drag to get through. Maybe it's me, but I think its most likely the book!!! Classics- Books people praise but don't read~Mark Twain wow that sums it up

[Unregistered]

You were obviously right when you said you were not a scholar, and wrong about knowing what a good book is. You obviously don't understand the novel at all. It's also obvious why the rest didn't like the novel, seeing as they can not spell it was too hard for them to understand the meaning. I do suggest that you read something much simpler like seventeen magazine or something.<br>Crime and Punishment is one of the best books I've ever read. The detail is extraordinary if you are able to grasp the meaning of it. (There is deeper meaning to it all). I suggest you read 5 times more, until you can grasp the meaning, and then write an analysis worth something.

[WErd]

I halfway agree. If one is a scholar, it is impossible to resist the dissection of this novel, and one will find intellectual riches beyond his/her wildest dreams. But if you were to read it for class, fun, or enrichment (some might say fun), you can get Dostoevsky's main message with less words.

[Sophie]

I can't believe how offended some people have gotten, just because others didn't like Crime and Punishment... I thought janelle's analysis was hilarious, and I liked the book...

[SophieR]

Crime and Punishment was a classic for several reasons. The themes as well as characters and symbolism were very well developed. Dostoevsky underscored duality (compassion vs. antipathy, good vs. evil, egoism vs. sacrifice, etc.) in such a way that a writer of any less caliber could not have. Raskolnikov and the other main characters were fully developed as Christian allegorical figures, which could not have been done in less than 600 pages. St. Augustine's Christian allegory was brought on in Raskolnikov's journey from spiritual death to awakening to salvation. All of this only begins to illustrate the makings of a timeless novel. Dostoevsky shows originality in addition to a depth of knowledge of other literature.

[Sarah C]

This was definately not the best book that I've ever read. I am not a scholar by any means, but I do know what I think is good. Crime and Punishment was an extreme bother to finish. In the 600 page book I read there seemed to only be 200 pages of useful information. I can't for the life of me figure out why there were 400 extra pages. If you can make it towards the end the only reward you get is a story that acutally follows a normal pace. It became interesting for all of maybe 5 chapters. woo hoo! It's foolish how we are foced to over analyze a book that really has little to analyze. Almost all the secrets are revealed and there is really little mystery. Why must we torture ourselves for a so called classic?!?