Crime and Punishment (Illustrated Classics) - Softcover

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1411415949 ISBN 13: 9781411415942

Publisher: Sterling Pub Co Inc, 2009

Synopsis

“And, in the dark, a thought came to me that no one had ever had before me: I wanted to kill someone, just in order to dare.”

This graphic adaptation of Crime and Punishment masterfully illuminates Dostoevsky’s psychological thriller. Acclaimed French artist Alain Korkos vividly brings to life the mental anguish and moral dilemmas that plague Raskolnikov, a poor St. Petersburg student who murders a miserly pawnbroker. In this classic of Russian literature, the hero, unable to quell his guilt and paranoia, falls from a self-styled “super human” to a tormented soul in search of redemption. Both a philosophical inquiry and searing social critique, this suspense-driven drama remains as widely popular today as ever.

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:

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

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

About this edition

• Publisher: Sterling Pub Co Inc
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1411415949
• ISBN 13: 9781411415942
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 122
• Illustrator: Korkos Alain