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

    Crime and Punishment

    Written by Fyodor Dostoevsky

    Narrated by Michael Sheen

    4/5

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    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
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateAug 30, 1994
    ISBN9789629545024
    Author

    Fyodor Dostoevsky

    Fyodor Dostoevsky was born in Moscow in 1821. Between 1838 and 1843 he studied at the St Petersburg Engineering Academy. His first work of fiction was the epistolary novel Poor Folk (1846), which met with a generally favourable response. However, his immediately subsequent works were less enthusiastically received. In 1849 Dostoevsky was arrested as a member of the socialist Petrashevsky circle, and subjected to a mock execution. He suffered four years in a Siberian penal settlement and then another four years of enforced military service. He returned to writing in the late 1850s and travelled abroad in the 1860s. It was during the last twenty years of his life that he wrote the iconic works, such as Notes from the Underground (1864), Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1868) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880), which were to form the basis of his formidable reputation. He died in 1881.

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    Reviews for Crime and Punishment

    4/5

    231 ratings173 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Very wordy, hard to remember Russian names ( I had to write them down to keep track ), but thoroughly interesting and entertaining.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      There is not much more I can say about this book that hasn't been said by hundreds of people throughout the years. On a personal note, I found this book to be outstanding and can easily see why it is considered one of the classics of literature. The way Dostoevsky gets into the mind of his character is as good writing as I have ever seen. The torment, guilt, hope, wonder, and range of dozens of emotions of the main character really hit home to the reader. I think everyone could connect in some way to the ideas in this story and although it is a slow read that takes some time, I think it is worth it for any avid reader.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      A great story of the disintegration of a psyche.
    • 5/5
      The novel tells the story of Raskolnikov, a student in St. Petersburg, Russia. Consumed by poverty, oppression and decadence, Raskolnikov is isolated from most other human beings. In his self-alienation, he begins to see himself as a superior being, a sort of "superman" who transcends the moral laws that connect the others. He seeks a way to "validate" himself and his feelings of superiority, a process that has often been termed "suicide by self-assertion". Dostoevsky had lived in Western Europe and, as a Christian, he saw the dangers of intellectual fashionable ideas such as nihilism and utilitarianism. Dostoevsky began as a socialist co-conspirator, only to be condemned by the tsarist regime to four years' hard labor in Siberia. The man who came back from prison was not the same. He devoted himself to the study and exploration of ideas. He traveled to Europe to listen to the great secular, progressive thinkers of his day. What finally emerged was a man totally determined to undermine the ruinous ideologies of his time. He did have his demons and personal tragedies. But he was a man (as shown by the essayist Chuck Colson) who understood that behaviour follows belief. The way we live as individuals, and the decisions taken by national leaders are the results of a battle of ideas that did not start yesterday and will not end tomorrow.
    • 5/5
      gripping....extremely
    • 5/5
      This is one of the finest examples of criminal psychology ever explored. Dostoyevski's enormous scope dissects poverty, rationalization, the criminal mind, guilt, confession, religion and redemption. It also provides an exquisite look at overwhelming paranoia. A perfect, breathtaking masterpiece.
    • 5/5
      If I had to make a list of books that got under my skin, this would be number one, way above anything else. Do I want to write this..the idea of murder and that you may get carried away with that idea and actually do it is one that really got to me. The interrogation scenes often play out in different variations in my dreams. Unforgettable.
    • 3/5
      I can't believe I worked my way through some long books with not much to show for it. I must have been between 20 and 30 when I read this. I can just imagine reading about Raskolnikov walking by the river brooding about his guilt and some scenes when he faces interogation.
    • 4/5
      what struck me was the way dostoevsky could thoroughly develop eleventy-four different sides of an argument, leaving me convinced of each one's validity... one of the works that had me wanting to learn another language just so i could read it as it was intended.
    • 1/5
      This isn't an enjoyable book, by any means, but it's certainly thought-provoking. The main character is a complete idiot, which eliminates any possibility of empathy from the reader. I fear that dark Russian fiction simply isn't my thing.
    • 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!
    • 4/5
      Great psychological novel.
    • 5/5
      I first read this book in high school and was mesmerized. When my book club was considering reading some classics, I recommended it, and I find that I still love the book. It is a classic psychological thriller.
    • 5/5
      I had to read this for my English class first of all, but I wasn't particularly dreading it or anything. It was a good novel, a bit too heavy on what I very generally call "philosophy," but I'm sure I only think that because I am not a fan of philosophy. It had good characters, particularly Dunya, Svidrailigov, and Razumikhin, and the writing was not bad at all. I finished it in six days, which is pretty good for its length. Anyway, overall, a good novel.
    • 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.
    • 4/5
      Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov commits murder. And we learn of his mental anguish. He isn't a particularly likeable character. Yet his story is very interesting. It does make it keep your interest.
    • 3/5
      This book is a Russian novel about the murder one man committs and the punishment he puts himself through. The novel takes a good look at how someone can punish themselves through guilt and worry. That punishment is worse than the punishment the character actually recieves after he confesses.
    • 4/5
      I found this a difficult to read, the story jumps between characters and their individual stories to the extent that I occasionally got a little lost.

      The story was written and set in Russia during the mid 19th century, around the same kind of time as Dickens in London. I found the comparisons in the way of life intriguing.

      The story itself basically how a man punishes himself, subconsciously more than anyone else ever could. Well worth reading.
    • 4/5
      I read this book because a friend of mine recommended it and I wasn't disappointed. I loved the way conscience and human kind are exposed, so directly and with so much truth in it! Also the notion that redemption is possible, even in desperate cases.
    • 5/5
      Hailed as one of the greatest novels ever written in all times, Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment tells the tale of an ex-law student's meticulous, calculated murder of a pawnbroker woman and his showing no remorse for his atrocious crime. In this particularly vivid translation by David McDuff, the words "morbid" and "rabid fury" appear at least 5 times, respectively throughout the book. Such stylistic choices invariably set the mood. The dark and morbid prose ominously sets the foreboding tone of the novel as though the act of murder is indeed a preordained announcement of fate noted by Raskolnikov from the beginning.The murder occurred at the very beginning of the book and proceeded which was Raskolnikov's meticulous planning and "rehearsal" of the perfect crime. He would paid a visit to the pawnbroker, made careful notice of the setup of her apartment, listened for the pitch of the notched key she used to unlock the chest, and sewed a piece of cloth inside his waistcoat to hold the axe. Whether the crime was destitute-driven, the origin of his action could be diffuse and was somehow associated with certain morbid sensations. Indeed Raskolnikov subsequently conferred on his theory about the psychological state of a criminal's mind throughout the entire process of committing the crime. In his audacious "ordinary vs. extraordinary" statement, the latter could commit the most atrocious crime to whom law did not apply. To Raskolnikov, the morbid theory justified the act of committing atrocious acts upon morally corrupt individuals (the loutish, loathsome, filthy old moneylender woman per se) for the benefit of society.The rest (five-sixths) of the book dealt with Raskolnikov's psychological aftermath of his crime-the intermittent moments of remorse, the excruciating physical suffering (seized with fear that he might give away his murder in his delirium), the howling of his own conscience, and the to-confess-or-not-to-confess struggle. Indeed Raskolnikov's own qualms of conscience had given him away-that investigator Porfiry infallibly identified Raskolnikov as the murderer by employing psychological tactics to play with Raskolnikov's mind. Porfiry contemplated that no less cruel was the punishment from one's own conscience. It was the formidable suffering that led Porfiry to purposely send an artisan to the street and randomly accused Raskolnikov of murder, to make him panic. That's why he wouldn't worry about arresting him imminently.An interesting notion that kept repeating throughout the novel was redemption. Raskolnikov might have found his redemption through Sonya, a downtrodden prostitute who prayed and read the bible. But Sonya herself was asking for mercy and redemption for her own sin to which Raskolnikov deemed as moral suicide. Sonya's father Marmeladov in his deathbed asked for forgiveness and died in Sonya's arms. Svidrigailov, the landowner in whose home Raskolnikov's sister Dunya was ill-treated, offered to cover the cost of Katerina's (Sonya's stepmother) funeral and endowed each of the children with 1500 roubles to be paid on their maturity. In a sense, Svidrigailov hoped to find redemption of his sin (the killing of his wife and servant) through a good deed.Not until in Siberia did Raskolnikov truly begin his repentance. One would be mistaken to think Raskolnikov had felt remorse for his crime when he confessed to Sonya. At that point all he did was nothing but recounting the whole murdering event, from the rehearsal, the timing, and the actual murder from which he was emotionally detached. He simply wanted to make the dare and thus never availed himself of the pawnbroker's treasures. It was the Devil who killed her, he claimed. It was the kind of theory; the sort of argument that said a single villainous act was allowable if the central aim was good. Whether he truly found redemption from his depravity and perversity would be left to readers' judgment.A gloomy, melancholy, and taut air hovered above the entire novel and the language of which could become overwhelming and awkward at times. The plot itself was not so much suspenseful as the most jolting event took place in the beginning. What really gripped my mind were the conflicting emotions of fear, guilt, remorse, and courage. Whenever he was haunted, Raskolnikov would search his memory for some hints he might inadvertently gave away evidence of his crime. You might question how Dostoyevsky could penetrate the mind of a murderer so thoroughly and verbalize those freaky delirious thoughts. Every single character in the novel exerted some sense of agitation which, again, permeated throughout the book. The persistent destitute chased after Sonya's stepmother who already suffered from tuberculosis and hacked up blood. The children starved for days and were forced to perform street dance and begged for money. The inebriated men consumed huge amount of alcohol and paid numerous visits to brothels and indulged in debauchery. The most repugnant of all was Pyotr (Luzhin) who took advantage of women's glooming poverty and wielded the constant reproach over them that he had done a favor, making them forever indebted to him. He would manipulate in hope that Dunya and her mother would fall out with Raskolnikov out of his slanderous remarks. His would slyly slip a 100-rouble note into Sonya's pocket, falsely accused her stealing the money among a ghastly audience, and hopefully made her feel indebted to him.Crime and Punishment is not an easy book to read. You will be rewarded with a sense of fulfillment that is so promising when you manage to finish. No sooner when you open the book than it provokes your mind. The whole novel is about morbidity that gives rise of a serious crime. That means you have to persevere with the psychotic nature of a murderer. It is impossible to do justice of all the implications and historical meaning underlying in this book with just a few paragraphs. Do read it for yourself.
    • 2/5
      Glad I've read it and I can see why it's one of the great classics for so many reasons, but the protagonist is so grossly unappealing and the melodrama so overwhelming in so many places, that it was a book read for duty,not for pleasure.
    • 2/5
      While I read this book, I kept thinking, "This is just a very verbose retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's short story A Tell-Tale Heart".

      That may be a bit simplistic, but at the heart, they are the same. Both men commit murder for the stupidest of reasons, albeit different. Both men are crazed and even more so afterward, becoming paranoid. Both men break at the end and confess. The difference is, Poe was able to tell his version in a compelling short story while Dostoevsky must have been paid by the word.

      I found a few things irritating and hindered the flow, but perhaps that was the intention. The most glaring, cumbersome and repetitive was the mood swings of the main character, Raskolnikov. I would think that if it were a literary tool, his swings would have been more pronounced later in the story, as his situation progressed. However, he was bipolar from the beginning with no apparent trigger.

      Another odd recurring action was men falling in love with Dunya, Raskolnikov's sister. Three men over the course of the novel fell for her. She was either very beautiful, which I didn't perceive, or they were in desperate times.

      Why this book is such a studied classic is beyond me. Even as verbose as it is, it is well-written (if I can say that about a translation) and not beyond reading. However, I didn't enjoy the read and found that I finished it out of a sense of responsibility. I hold fast to my thought that Poe's short story is much more worth the time and analysis. To do the same thing in a fraction of the words, and 23 years earlier than Dostoevsky gets my attention.

      Read if you have to, but I cannot recommend it.
    • 5/5
      A brilliant searing narrative of Raskolnikov who is driven to murder for money. Dotsoevsky paints a grim picture of life amongst the Russian underclass making one wish not to live the same life.
    • 4/5
      The main thing I loved about his work is the strong characters and how they connected with philosophies. Russia in the mid-1800s was a hotbed of mixing philosophies and personas with rising amounts of socialists, communists, atheists, nihilists, and just general re-envisionings of morality and other basic concepts. Dostoevsky himself was a member of a radical political group in his youth and an atheist and socialist, and was sentenced to death. His death sentence was overturned and became a sentence of hard labor in Siberia. Meanwhile, while he was in Siberia, he was only allowed to read the New Testament and became a very strict Russian orthodox.His characters are all very philosophical and all discuss their philosophies, mostly externally, but at least internally through narration with the reader as a motivating factor for their actions. As an intelligent and open minded reader, these philosophical diatribes on things that actually matter and could apply to a modern reader's day to day life can be very enlightening. His ultimate philosophical claims don't matter nearly as much as how he and his characters reach them and their dialogues on these issues can still be extremely enlightening and opening to any belief system, portraying legitimately good and bad arguments for all kind of belief systems, in a strict religious sense, but also in the political spectrum, and other general philosophies on morality. Basically, these dialogues serve as amazing food for thought. When I first read Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov years ago, it made me question religion and be more open-minded in regards to religion, and ultimately made me more conservative morally and generally respectful of Christians and their beliefs and helped me see the amazing beauty of Christianity and its implications.Don't think though, that Dostoevsky's work is all moralizing and edifying though. His writing style is very simple, somewhat similar to Charles Dickens, and the narrative structure is very straightforward and completely linear. His works are very easy when given a chance, and that ties in greatly with how he manages to merge elements of genre fiction into some fine literature. His two main well known epics (out of a total 5 massive novels he wrote) are Crime and Punishment, and the Brothers Karamazov, and both infuse elements of suspense fiction and detective/crime fiction creating a very quickly moving narrative that manages to keep the reader on his toes while still delivering philosophical debates and other things of that nature.This is all also tied in with Dostoevsky's total sincerity. His works are very sincere, and almost completely lack irony. They feel very trusting and confiding in the reader and don't try to trick you as a reader or see how clever Dostoevsky is, like a lot of literary fiction really doesn't. This sincerity allows readers of Dostoevsky to form strong ties to his characters through seeing them as ultimately broken people, but very real people, through seeing and connecting with both their actions and their reasons for them, in their philosophies. These connections allow me, and presumably most readers of Dostoevsky, to see these characters as real people that could be alive today. These connections also affect me personally as the Brothers Karamazov hit me so hard that it completely solidified my interest in psychological fiction, because I wanted to read more of them in this lifetime, after seeing the beauty and power of literature that can be carried in these amazing texts like most of Dostoevsky's work.-Ken from NY
    • 5/5
      This is my favorite among Dostoevsky's last great novels. In it the reader finds a man filled with fear, desperation, and anguish. Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment is a shockingly intimate tale of a murder and a murderer. Raskolnikov is a man seemingly on the brink of madness as he plots and carries out a grisly killing. Although he evades the police, Raskolnikov's dark deed weighs heavily on him (in a way reminiscent of Poe's The Tell-tale Heart). The aftermath of his crime takes the young man on a journey through the range of human emotion and experience. Good and evil, guilt and redemption, agony and joy—this novel is an invitation to explore and question many of the ideas and judgments we take for granted.The characterization and discussion of ideas in both this novel and Dostoevsky's final work, The Brothers Karamazov are as good as any in literature. If you like Hamlet, Les Miserables or War & Peace you will like this book.
    • 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
    • 5/5
      Great short novel, takes you into the mind of a killer, makes you even respect him.
    • 5/5
      I found this book to be wholly engaging and a great study of what the mind can do to a person.
    • 4/5
      I avoided this book for decades, while reading Dostoevsky’s [The Brothers Karamazov] twice. I rather regret not jumping into C&P earlier, but who could blame me? I had already heard that the protagonist, rascally Raskolnikov, is an unlikable character who commits a brutal murder and suffers the consequences. That coupled with the challenge of Russian names over the course of 500 or more pages … well, who’d want to bother? It turned out that I would, and I’m glad I did.Raskolnikov is a young student suffering from a combination of frustrated ambition, overweening arrogance, poverty and the mental and physical illness that often accompany it. He murders and robs a despicable pawnbroker, ostensibly because he will some day do great things with the wealth he acquires, while ridding the world of an evil predator. From the moment of the murder, however, the plan goes awry. Unlike Napoleon, to whom he compares himself, Raskolnikov has neither the drive nor the clarity of purpose required to overlook the persistent bleat of conscience. His attempt to escape that voice in all its forms is the substance of the story.This tale is enriched by a marvelous variety of secondary characters: his friend and foil, the generous Razumikhin; the tender, loving girlfriend Sonya; the devoted sister and mother Dunya and Pulkheria; the persistent detective Porfiry, the decadent Svidrigailov, and on and on. Each character opens a door into a new mind, a new slice of Russian life, a new way of approaching the idea upon which Raskolnikov has built his crumbling theoretical edifice.Unlike many books from the era – which were often serialized and tended to stray off onto any number of sidetracks -- this one (published in only two installments) remains remarkably focused. Although we never come to love our protagonist, we are interested in what becomes of him and all the people who intercede on his behalf. The result is an engaging, thought-provoking, and ultimately hopeful read.
    • 4/5
      My first Russian novel! Very good book!