Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) – This was very interesting. The first two parts were very difficult to read. I had a hard time understanding what was going on and who the characters were. Part of the problem was to understand the names of the characters. Each of them has five different names they can go by and I never found any rhyme or reason as to when they were used. But the story was very good. It takes you into the mind of a criminal and how he justified his actions. It brings you into his thoughts and his reasoning. I really could not relate to the character at all, but as I read into his thoughts I could understand his point of view. I really liked how the characters were all interwoven in some way. There was a complexity that brought them close together. A big part of this book was trying to understand why he did it and why he couldn’t handle the pressure of his secret. He was overtaken with the guilt, yet at the same time he convinced himself that what he did was not a crime. The action was merely to bring about a greater good and new ruling. In the end he realized that he was not one of the “Great Ones” that could step over into greatness. I particularly liked the ending in the epilogue; it really concluded the story and brought about the ending that any reader would want. (1860s)