Product Description

With the same suppleness, energy, and range of voices that won their translation of The Brothers Karamazov the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize, Pevear and Volokhonsky offer a brilliant translation of Dostoevsky's classic novel that presents a clear insight into this astounding psychological thriller. "The best (translation) currently available"--Washington Post Book World.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7258 in Books
• Published on: 1993-03-02
• Released on: 1993-03-02
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 592 pages

From Publishers Weekly
An acclaimed new translation of the classic Russian novel.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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.

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian

Customer Reviews

One of my favorites
I don't think any book creates the inner tension like this one. This and Brothers Karamzov are must reads of FD.

Crime and Punishment
What can I say that hasn't been said already?
This is probably the best fictional study of the effects of guilt and radical ideas on a troubled mind. The prose is flowing, and it's not hard to see why Dostoevsky considered his novels "poems".
Dostoevsky's works in general are marred by a flaw I prefer to ignore as much as I can, and in this novel it is hardly present. Dostoesky's politics are odious, his nationalism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Polish sentiments absolutely ruined a section of The Brothers Karamazov for me and in The Gambler I felt their effect dramatically. They only crop up once in Crime and Punishment, that is when (plot spoiler coming soon) Svidrigailov is about to shoot himself, when Dostoevsky describes the Jewish guard as having "that sour look common to all members of that tribe", or something very close to those words.
All in all, I feel that Dostoevsky's politics can be excused, and prefer to focus on the positive attributes of his writing. There are many, and it isn't difficult.

Oh how savagely I would make love to this book if it was a woman because it would be a very beutiful nymph...yes
Crime and Punishment is, without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest novel ever written. I first read this masterpiece of fiction and philosophy at the beginning of my senior year in high school (August 22) and finally got to its end with tears falling from my eyes on the night of December 23, 2005.

Not since finishing On the Road can I say that I have read a better novel.

It was like a pathetic escape from life when I followed all of these facinating characters around Dostoevsky's St. Petersburg.

Without a doubt, my favorite part of the book was at the beginning when Raskolnikov wandered into a bar and met Marmeladov, the hopeless, yet loveble drunk who is kind of the Micawber of the story if we may compare this monumental work of fiction with an obviously inferior one. Marmeladov just gives Raskolnikov his life story and talkes about his alcohol addiction and how it harms his wife and children. What really struck me the first time I read that part was Marmeladov's eloquence in saying how much he was ashamed of himself and sorry for putting his family through such pain. Then he says that meek ones like him on the last day shall be redeemed.

What we have at that part is the most beautiful part in world literature. It hit a bullseye with me and this simple scene of the drunkard's dignity is just the welcome Dostoevsky gives the reader. I love the friendship between Marmeladov and Raskolnikov and the depth of the character of Raskolnikov is simply astounding. It is just the epoch of psychological characterization.

The philosophy Marmeladov lays down to Raskolnikov at the beginning, salvation, redemption through suffering is very powerful (and true). We all have a cross to bear, especially Dostoevsky when he was writing this incredible work of fiction. It makes one romantically picture the great prophet slaving over this masterpiece with only a candle to light his writing in that beautiful language of Russian and finally finishing it and probably using the first pay to gamble.

I love you friend Fyodor Mikhailovich
and I love your novel.

I hath spoken to my friend...ECCE HOMO.