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Crime and Punishment
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Crime and Punishment
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Crime and Punishment
Audiobook (abridged)3 hours

Crime and Punishment

Written by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Narrated by Michael Sheen

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

A century after it first appeared, Crime and Punishment remains one of the most gripping psychological thrillers. A poverty-striken young man, seeing his family making sacrifices for him, is faced with an opportunity to solve his financial problems with one simple but horrifying act: the murder of a pawnbroker. She is, he feels, just a parasite on society. But does the end justify the means? Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov makes his decision and then has to live with it. Dostoyevsky, in masterly fashion, contrasts the comedy and tragedy of life in St Petersburg with the anguish and turmoil of Raskolnikov’s inner life.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 30, 1994
ISBN9789629545024
Author

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was a Russian short story writer, essayist, journalist, and one of the greatest novelists in all of world literature. His works are broadly thought to have anticipated Russian symbolism, existentialism, expressionism, and psychoanalysis. He also influenced later writers and philosophers including Anton Chekov, Hermann Hesse, Ernest Hemingway, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, and Jean-Paul Sartre.

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Reviews for Crime and Punishment

Rating: 4.257731958762887 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

194 ratings175 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Raskolnikov, an impoverished former student in St. Petersburg spends a 100ish pages deciding whether or not to commit a murder and then another 500ish pages going in various mental circles about whether or not to turn himself in after he does commit the murder.The writing here is well done and the translation is also excellent as it doesn't have that stilted and removed feeling I've noted in several translated novels I've read recently. I can see why it's an enduring classic but I was kind of hate reading long passages of this. There are many sections where paragraphs stretch across multiple pages, which is exhausting to read, particularly when spending so much time inside the head of a character whose thoughts are convoluted but also circular. Also, Dostoyevsky's female characters often serve as little more than window dressing with no real careful examination of their internal lives. If you're on a classics kick, this isn't a terrible read but it isn't one I'll ever recommend.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Great psychological novel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Ordinary vs superior people.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Classic. Story of one man who commits a murder to see if he can get away with it and the effects it has on everyone
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Interesting ideas about how people punish themselves and how they can be reborn, but confusing and a lot of random things
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    F.D. had a window into the human soul. This is an incredibly good novel.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A classic piece of fiction which is both deep and disturbing. A pefect choice for a book club to discuss.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I read this so long ago I don't remember much. I've got to reread this at some point. It's what got me into surfacey Russian lit though.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I loved and hated it at the same time. It was hard to get into the story as I mixed up the names all the time and it took me ages to get through. But I'm glad I finished it...
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing book with a true grasp on human psychology
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I hate to give such as well known classic a low star rating. Maybe it's because I read the Pevear & Volokhonsky translation, or listened to it in audio. Or maybe Dostoevsky intentionally set out to make the reader feel the mental sickness/madness of the main character, like an unpleasant fever-dream. The first two chapters were great and promising, but the remaining melodramatic and plodding (a trait shared by some other 1850s and 60s classic novels). The best aspects are Dostoevsky's insights on human nature, but to get those ideas requires ascribing motives, thoughts and ideas to his characters that do not feel authentic; the characters are like projections of Dostoevsky himself thus lacking a believable psychology. I'm glad to have read it because it is so famous, but life is short so I look to the classics for a sure thing and this did not deliver. I read The House of the Dead which was great, so may give Dostoevsky another try later.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It was bitter cold last night. The trip from work to the kitchen was uneventful enough. I prepared soup and awaited my wife. After dinner, I placed Sonny Rollins' 9/11 Concert on the stereo and sat down with the last 52 pages of Crime and Punishment. the greatest testament I can afford the novel conclusion is that for 25 minutes I didn't hear any jazz, only Dostoevsky's denouement
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book gripped me from beginning to end. While written off by some as melodramatic and emotional, I found Dostoyevsky's portrayal of his character's inner struggles to be real & enthralling. Raskolnikov is probably one of the best "nonsympathetic" characters ever because even so I still felt for him! Honourable mention to Svidrigailov who absolutely fascinated me throughout the story. The brief descriptions of the penal colony in the epilogue made me interested in reading more about Dostoyevsky's own experiences there (in Notes from a Dead House). I also read The Brothers K this year, which I felt had a much more satisfying arc, emotional climax, and ending on the whole. Still, C&P was a great read and I'm ready for more!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Read and pieced together 3 different versions totaling about 621 pages (see wikipedia for explanations of why so many versions) Russian writing at its best. Written after Dostoevsky returned from Siberian gulag; although this is not what the book is about. The book attempts to both solidify and crumble notions that one has about philosophy and the nature of sin. Great read! 621 pages
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A depressed man does some crime, is unhappy about the consequences.2.5/4 (Okay).This is my first Russian novel, and it's a 1960's translation, so I'm a little surprised how straightforward and modern the style is. The story's not great, though. Dostoyevsky clearly started writing with some ideas he wanted to put across, but no plan for exactly how he was going to do it. And while there are a lot of characters and individual scenes that I like quite a bit, they're mostly incidental.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The rating is for this specific translation by Oliver Ready. I didn't care for the over-colloquial tone of his dialogue choices, but reading in a different translation made this book a wonderful reading experience. Comparing translations was enlightening, as well.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing, phenomenal, and well deserved to be called a masterpiece. For some reason, I had in my head that it would be about the Crime, of course, and then being in prison, with long pondering about guilt, remorse, etc. - and very dry. But I was completely wrong. It was exciting, suspenseful, with intriguing sub-plots and many layers to be uncovered. Wonderful, and I highly recommend it!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    so much there; duh
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Well, it's a good book. Enjoyable enough. I found the first half a little harder to get through, but I knocked it out quickly enough. His writing style isn't exactly what I expected, but I found it useful in perhaps formulating my own. Though fictional, it's also one of those works that offers an excellent snapshot of a particular place and time, in this case late 19th Century Russia.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Thanks to Crime and Punishment being a #1001Books and a read-a-long with some Litsy members, I finally got around to tackling this Russian masterpiece. Admittedly, my reading experience was enhanced by being able to discuss this book with the others: the memorable characters, the story, the feeling of dread that most of us felt, and comparing various translations. I started out with the Oliver Ready translation, but found the older (and reputedly less accurate) Constance Garnett translations to be more readable; so was switching back and forth frequently between the two versions.I am by no means a Dostoevsky expert after reading this or Notes from Underground recently, but found him far less intimidating than anticipated, and definitely plan to read his other works eventually.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I actually liked the book, and it made me think about the meaning of life. A little bit of boring, but worth the time.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    For a long time, I have looked along shelves at the book store, looking for books to read, and every time, I skipped over the Classics section. Compared to the books of today, the Classics seemed like they would be more of a chore than a fun way to escape from reality. But one day, I decided to take the plunge into this pool of literary greatness. The first book I picked up was Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I read the very first page, but now, I understand why books like Crime and Punishment are called the Classics. There is a depth and complexity in Crime and Punishment that I haven't yet encountered. It may be from my limited exposure to such novels, but it still is something worth noting. Dostoevsky delves deep into the mind of man and takes us on a journey through love and hate, joy and despair, through this tale of a young man and his tormented life.It's not enough to look at Crime and Punishment as just a novel that follows the same basic pattern that has been followed for centuries. This is a book that is much deeper than that. The book follows the life of a ex-student named Raskolonikov (Some characters refer to him as different names, but this is the most common), a young man who lives in St. Petersburg, Russia. He lives in completely deplorable conditions: he barley lives on a few coins in a very small attic and flirts on the edge of sanity. In this state, Raskolonikov is not the usual protagonist and in fact, he may be the perfect definition of an antihero. Sometimes, however, I found myself lost as the story went on. The story would be centered around a single thought or idea and change radically in a manner of paragraphs. Other times, the same idea would get stuck and persist through whole passages, leaving a very long and, in some instances, a very tedious workload. The transition from thoughts to spoken word can be a bit hard to discern, though it could be just a problem of the translation. Some passages I really enjoyed, but others just dragged on for a long time. Crime and Punishment is one of those books that you shouldn't spend too log of time reading. It's not that it's short or something that is easy to read, but with the different characters and other factors, it's easy to forget where you are, who the characters are, and how that scene fits into the running plot if you leave it untouched for too long. But for the reasons stated above, it can get hard to keep rolling through the book. I sometimes found myself rereading certain passages to understand what was going on, only to become lost in the grand scheme of things.Crime and Punishment is one of the books you should read at least once. Dostoevsky covers the base ideas of man in a thoughtful and interesting way. This book was a wake-up call to the type of literature that I still need to read. But, parts of the book just seemed too drawn out and longer than what it should have been. It is a very dense book and almost every line seemed to have some sort of significance, promoting a close analyzation of almost everything. I enjoyed Crime and Punishment and, while not everyone will necessarily like it, recommend others to try and read it at least once.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Surprisingly easy read. Long though.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing, phenomenal, and well deserved to be called a masterpiece. For some reason, I had in my head that it would be about the Crime, of course, and then being in prison, with long pondering about guilt, remorse, etc. - and very dry. But I was completely wrong. It was exciting, suspenseful, with intriguing sub-plots and many layers to be uncovered. Wonderful, and I highly recommend it!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    gripping....extremely
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I first read this book fifteen years ago as a high school student. I was gripped by the mystery of it--not knowing what would happen to the narrator who, it is fairly clear from page one, is thinking of doing something horrible, and wondering throughout whether he would get caught. I was also swept up in the idea that a novel could be not just a story, but a philosophy: an exposition, through characters' perspectives, of what is true about life, faith, and politics. My classmates found Marmeladov's drunken ramblings on suffering as a vehicle for salvation dry, dull, and depressing; I was coming into the beginnings of my independent religious consciousness, and latched on to the idea that faith could be a personal and individual thing. I had always disliked how easily authors and directors made me root for the bad guy, and I found myself so smitten with the possibility that we are each villains in our own ways, and can be redeemed to do the right thing in the end. In short, I fell in love with this book, which quickly garnered the distinction as my favourite of all time, not only as an important novel, but as a moving and compelling story.The acclaim in which I held this book for so long made me a bit tentative about going back to it fifteen years later, but I am so glad for having done so. I can be more open now about the writing style in comparison with other great works I have read since; it is, without a doubt, a nineteenth century text, and one whose reading requires a great deal of investment--not work, per se, but close attention. And yet, the deeper meanings of the novel stand out in even sharper relief to me than they did on the first go. I find myself taking the perspective of each of the characters, not just Raskolnikov, and marvelling at how well Dostoevsky brings each of them to life with a psychology and a spirituality that is uniquely and realistically their own. I find myself more critical of the themes of the novel in view of my own understanding of Christian truth, yet more desperate than ever to piece together how and when, for Raskolnikov, his actions and his understanding combine into a coherent whole. And I find myself more appreciative than ever that the author does not gloss over the evil realities of life, but instead explores the heights of Christian redemption through the depths of the harshest sins, and does not permit his characters to slip painlessly into a happy ending, but demands, as God does of us, that they persevere for years in a growing understanding of His truth. This is the Christian fiction I wish more Christians could be bothered to aim for--not the heartfelt world of Amish farms, well-behaved children, and sexually pure courtships, but the far more compelling world of real people with real problems, getting life wrong, falling into the depths of despair, finding faith, and continuing to live in spite of their pain (not without it) simply because of some faint understanding in the bottom of their consciousness that there is one more reason out there not to give up hope. It is the fiction that would birth the C.S. Lewis and the Flannery O'Connor, as well as inspire a multitude of non-Christian authors who, in spite of not sharing the author's or the main character's views, would sense the significance of allowing their characters to be shaped by events and not simply molded by predestined happy endings. It is a book that seems to touch on my own psychology and heart more as I grow older and more experienced with disappointment and struggle. And though the mystery faded considerably after the first read, it is, because of all these things, still my all-time favourite book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Dostoevsky's novel places Raskolnikov in the daily confrontation of alienation and self-inflicted punishment. Raskolnikov faces delirium and illness while pressuring himself to remain blameless. The prevalence of poverty in Russia in the 1800's and the growing power of ideas such as nihilism and other philosophical positions are carried throughout the novel. Dostoevsky somehow adds an underlying love story into this strange combination of psychosis and philosophy. The novel definitely makes my list of something everyone should read. A character list is essential to keep track of the many different names Dostoevsky used for the main characters.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Only through great suffering comes wisdom and enlightenment.That is one of the many themes in Crime and Punishment.This novel was written by Dostoevsky after his time in exile in Siberia, where he was serving a sentence in the Katorga camps (a system of forced labour camps that preceded the Gulag).The story follows the young Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov (a student of law) after he committed murder, and details his mental and physical anguish of his secret and his attempts to justify his actions.The story unravels slowly but surely as the idea of noble suffering makes its way to the fore and Rodion has to make some tough decisions that will impact many of the characters in his life.I like to draw an analogy between Rodion's anguish and mine at reading the book. It is long -- very long -- and thoroughly enjoyable, but at points I didn't want to put it down and felt compelled to read for very long stretches. Alas, the size of the book make this impossible and the anguish of the story and its weight on me drew on for over a week.In the end, the closing words referring to "another story" could refer as much to Crime and Punishment itself as to my story of reading the novel.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I picked up this novel as part of the Easton's top 100 books. I have to admit that I wouldn't have read it, or finished it, if it wasn't part of this list. It follows the deterioration of Rasko, a poor student, who decides to murder a pawnbroker in an attempt to better his life. This go awry from the beginning, when in a state of panic he forgets to bolt the door. After committing the murder, he takes a handful of trinkets. Rasko is immediately wracked by guilt, and begins making mistake after mistake. The novel was probably considered a psychological thriller when it was initially published. However, I found it to be a bit dry and hard to read. Oftentimes characters would go on non-sensical rants that lasted several pages. I found the moral questions raised throughout the book to be interesting. A more modern take on this book would probably be interesting and well worth reading.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It's a daunting task to review a masterpiece such as Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment", and yet I am attempting it, in a very small way. I first read this book years ago in my youth as part of high school curriculum, and even then it produced an overwhelming impression on me. Re-reading it now, the effect is similar, even though I understand and appreciate it more intensely. The depth with which Dostoyevsky delves into human feelings is incomparable, his depiction of Russian soul, with all its idiosyncrasies, is unparalleled . Love or hate - by a Russian it's felt to the extreme possible degree. And how typical of one of his characters to observe that "suffering is a great thing...". The idea that prompts Raskolnikov to commit his crime is both shocking and daring, and though one cannot justify any killing, one can see from his tormenting ruminations and his published article that he drew his lessons from history - it's just that he interpreted them in too drastic a manner. Apart from this main story line, Dostoyevsky thoroughly mocks certain layers of Russian society and yet professes feelings of harrowing pain for the suffering multitude. Dostoyevsky is always true to his genius - one cannot afford to skip a single line...Not to mention what a joy it is to read him in the original.--