Brott & straff by Fyodor Dostoevsky

February 23rd, 2008

Brott & straff
(Преступление и наказание = Crime & Punishment)
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Translated by Hans Björkegren.
325 + 309 p.

Wahlström & Widstrand, 1979.
(first published 1866 in several installments.)

For Decades ‘08 and Russian Reading Challenge.

Back cover blurb:

Brott och straff har kallats “världens mest berömda roman”. Denär också en av världens mest lästa böcker. Den kom ut 1866 och alltsedan dess har hundratals miljoner läsare följt den fattige studenten och mördaren Raskolnikov på hans febervandringar genom Petersburg. Generationer av psykiatriker, religionspsykologer, kriminologer, sociologer och litteraturforskare har hämtat argument och exempel ur denna gastkramande berättelse om en “övermänniskas” väg mot katastrofen. Brott och straff har aldrig förlorat sin aktualitet och gåtfulla spänning. Ännu i dag känns den märkvärdigt levande och modern.

En nyöversättning till svenska har länge varit efterlängtad. Hans Björkegrens tolkning av romanen är genomgripande och har gjorts i samarbete med sovjetiska experter.

After two sentences I was smitten. I must have known I would be this smitten, or I wouldn’t have longed to read it as much I did - I spent a great deal of time last term eagerly waiting for the time for us to come when we were going to read this book. We are not expected to have finished it yet. We are supposed to have begun it come the next Swedish lesson. But I honestly couldn’t wait once we had started talking about it. I plowed through it in five or so days (it probably would have taken less time if I had not been forced to be nice and social to my family) and I loved every moment of it. Who would have thought I would be so intrigued by a poor ex-student turned killer?

The character of Raskolnikov never ceased to amaze me. Of course, the times he gave all of his money to different people I ground my teeth in frustration - why couldn’t he think of himself?! Though, I guess, that’s one of the reasons I found him so fascinating. I couldn’t help but feel for him, despite him killing a person “just because”. He is such an exquisite and chiseled character. In fact, all of the characters feel remarkably alive and real, much more so than anything else I’ve read in the past few months.

Like I mentioned before, this is one of the novels I am studying in school (or will be studying on Tuesday). I know for a fact that many of my friends and classmats will despise this book, because of the simple reason that I think it is so good. Or maybe it’s related to that one of the other Swedish classes have already read it and there seems to be many who despise it there. Hopefully none of the people I know well hate it, but I can’t bet on that. The most tragic thing is that when I will try and defend it all I will be able to say is “BUT IT’S SO GOOD”. They’ll all write me off as a nut who loves it because I study Russian. Actually, this me studying Russian proved a bit of problem when I was reading it. Sometimes I found myself staring at a name, wondering how that is spelled in the cyrillic alphabet, if it had an у or an о, a ю or a ё. Now, my Russian skills are at a very basic level, but let’s admit it: my dream is to one day be good enough at the language to read at least a bit of literature in it. I don’t know if this is the goal of many people studying languages, but else, what’s the point? One day I might reach this goal. Maybe I’ll fail miserably and in five years’ time I will look back at this and laugh at myself, but hey - you can have dreams, can’t you?

There is a BBC serial based on this novel, with John Simm as Raskolnikov. Anyone who have known me for any time the last two months will know that when I watch this, I will explode. And then I’ll be back for more - the next month and a half’s worth of Swedish classes will be full of discussions regarding this book. Yum.

(a couple of notes: a) the cover of the edition is impossible to find. which is a pity, because I quite like it. It’s really plain, but still!
b) The copy I read was my parents’, only because the one I got from school was too ugly. Apart from aesthetics, I have also gained a few other things. It is quite practical to have parents who’ve studied literature at University.)

Entry Filed under: Challenges, Classics, Decades '08, Fiction, Russian Reading Challenge, School reads, Swedish