BOOK 145: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT: FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY
It was first published in the literary journal The Russian
Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later
published in a single volume. It is the second of Dostoyevsky's full-length
novels following his return from 10 years of exile in
Siberia. Crime and Punishment is considered the first great novel of
his "mature" period of writing.
Dostoyevsky conceived the idea of
Crime and Punishment in the summer of 1865. At the time the author owed large
sums of money to creditors, and was trying to help the family of his brother
Mikhail, who had died in early 1864. Projected under the title The Drunkards,
it was to deal "with the present question of drunkness ... [in] all its
ramifications, especially the picture of a family and the bringing up of
children in these circumstances, etc., etc." Once Dostoyevsky conceived
Raskolnikov and his crime, now inspired by the case of Pierre
François Lacenaire, this theme became ancillary, centering on the
story of the Marmeladov family.
Despite its title, the novel does
not so much deal with the crime and its formal punishment, as with
Raskolnikov's internal struggle (the book shows that his punishment results
more from his conscience than from the law). Believing society would be better
for it, Raskolnikov commits murder with the idea that he possessed enough
intellectual and emotional fortitude to deal with the ramifications, [based on
his paper/thesis, "On Crime", that he is a Napoleon], but his sense
of guilt soon overwhelms him to the point of psychological and somatic illness.
It is only in the epilogue that he realizes his formal punishment, having
decided to confess and end his alienation from society.
TRIVIA: When Crime and Punishment
came up in an interview, Alfred Hitchcock told
French director Francois
Truffaut that he would never consider filming it. Hitchcock
explained that he could make a great film out of a good book, and even (or
especially) a mediocre book, but never a great book, because the film would
always suffer by comparison.
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