CRIME & PUNISHMENT: A RUSSIAN CLASSIC

Russian literature has always been hailed one of the most best. From Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol, Russia has blessed the world with the very best authors. There is a common misconception amongst the people that Russian literature is lengthy and boring. While the former is true, the latter can not be furthest from the truth. 

I had planned to read Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, widely considered as the best work of literature ever written. But when I was visiting an "Old Book Bank" in Saddar Rawalpindi, I caught sight of Dostoevsky's Crime & Punishment. I knew nothing about this book but bought it with an impulse. The book turned out to be an utter page-tuner. I finished the lengthy novel in a matter of days. 

The premise of the book is simple, it tells the story about Rodion Raskolnikov, a young student living in extreme poverty in 19th century Saint Petersburg. His abysmal financial situation forces him to live in a small garret, drop out of university and wear tattered clothes. His living conditions are dreadful. But Raskolnikov is an intelligent man, maybe too intelligent for his own good. Looking at his pathetic life, he devises a plan to commit the biggest sin: murder. He decides to murder and rob an old and merciless pawnbroker. Raskolnikov theorizes in his garret for days like a mad man, trying desperately to justify his heinous crime. He thinks he is doing a good deed by killing an evil woman and stealing her money for his own good. He believes that in order to be a great man like Napoleon, he must not care for societal norms and do the extraordinary, because that's what makes you great in history. Long story short, the murder doesn't goes down as Raskolnikov had meticulously planned. Though he manages to steal money from the pawn-broker, to Raskolnikov's surprise he is ridden with guilt and regret. His life spirals out of control, he is affected by continuous delirium, and he becomes the main suspect by a shrewd investigator of the case. Dostoevsky perfectly captures how much killing a human being can affect you, how your theories go out the window and your life takes a turn for the worst.

Outside the handful of books I have read, Crime & Punishment has to be the best one yet and probably the best I will ever read. It is simply a book about a young man who makes a grave mistake and the cost he has to pay for his redemption. This book sowed in me a great appreciation of Russian literature and it might do the same for you.

An illustration showing Raskolnikov murdering the pawnbroker