Crime and Punishment - Softcover

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 014045568X ISBN 13: 9780140455687

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2008

Synopsis

Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders through the slums of St Petersburg and commits a random murder without remorse or regret. He imagines himself to be a great man, a Napoleon: acting for a higher purpose beyond conventional moral law. But as he embarks on a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a suspicious police investigator, Raskolnikov is pursued by the growing voice of his conscience and finds the noose of his own guilt tightening around his neck. Only Sonya, a downtrodden prostitute, can offer the chance of redemption.

About this title

Review:

"For those who have vision and the courage to follow it, there is no law and no crime and no punishment, only a revaluation of all values." So declares Rodya Raskolnikov the young Russian intellectual living in ugly poverty. In order to eat, he is forced to pawn precious possessions for a few roubles to the greedy "cockroach", Alyona. If he kills her, Rodya argues, he commits no crime: rather he will rid the world of a "filthy insect", just like one of the cockroaches the listener can hear being crushed beneath his boots. As Alyona examines Rodya's silver cigarette case, he brings his axe down upon her with the horrifying sound of steel hitting human flesh. Despite this not being a crime, Rodya suffers fearful guilt--and inevitable punishment. It is Sonya, the abused young woman forced into prostitution by her drunken father, who holds the power of Rodya's redemption. Dramatisation is a superb vehicle for this tense psychological masterpiece and the performances are powerful: the baiting of Rodya by Jim Norton as Petrovich, the police officer who suspects Rodya's guilt, is chilling; while Barnaby Kay skilfully conveys Rodya's duality as his human conscience, breathless with panic, argues with his controlled and truculent intellect. -- Running time approx 2 hours 50 minutes

-- Rachel Redford

Review:

"The best [translation of "Crime and Punishment"] currently available...An especially faithful re-creation...with a coiled-spring kinetic energy...Don't miss it." -"Washington Post Book World"
"This fresh, new translation...provides a more exact, idiomatic, and contemporary rendition of the novel that brings Fyodor Dostoevsky's tale achingly alive...It succeeds beautifully." -"San Francisco Chronicle"
"Reaches as close to Dostoevsky's Russian as is possible in English...The original's force and frightening immediacy is captured...The Pevear and Volokhonsky translation will become the standard English version."-"Chicago Tribune"

"From the Hardcover edition."

"The best Ýtranslation of "Crime and Punishment"¨ currently available...An especially faithful re-creation...with a coiled-spring kinetic energy...Don't miss it." -"Washington Post Book World"
"This fresh, new translation...provides a more exact, idiomatic, and contemporary rendition of the novel that brings Fyodor Dostoevsky's tale achingly alive...It succeeds beautifully." -"San Francisco Chronicle"
"Reaches as close to Dostoevsky's Russian as is possible in English...The original's force and frightening immediacy is captured...The Pevear and Volokhonsky translation will become the standard English version."-"Chicago Tribune"

"From the Hardcover edition."

" The best [translation of "Crime and Punishment"] currently available... An especially faithful re-creation... with a coiled-spring kinetic energy... Don't miss it." - "Washington Post Book World"

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 014045568X
• ISBN 13: 9780140455687
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 720