A penniless student decides that a few extraordinary people may step over the law, and the next two weeks of the novel put his theory on trial.
A long, intense psychological novel that reads more like a thriller than its reputation suggests, thanks to the three conversations with the investigator Porfiry. The Garnett translation is free but sometimes stiff, and the cast list and the long speeches take patience. Four and a half out of five (my opinion).
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A full-spoiler Crime and Punishment summary built on a day-by-day clock, the three Porfiry conversations and who holds a piece of the truth, with fever and Sonia counts from the Constance Garnett text, Project Gutenberg 2554.
Crime and Punishment is a novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky in six parts and an epilogue. Raskolnikov, a penniless former student in St Petersburg, kills a pawnbroker and her sister to test a theory about extraordinary men, and the novel follows what happens to him and the people around him. We worked from the free Project Gutenberg ebook, number 2554, in the English translation by Constance Garnett, and every name, spelling and count on this site follows that text. Garnett’s spelling of the heroine’s name is Sonia.
Below you’ll find a summary part by part with a day-by-day clock built from the novel’s own time markers, the three conversations with the investigator Porfiry Petrovitch, a look at who holds a piece of the truth, and counts of words, fever and delirium, and the name Sonia in each part. The page has full spoilers, ending included. Murder is handled without graphic detail.
A long, intense psychological novel that reads more like a thriller than its reputation suggests, thanks to the three conversations with the investigator Porfiry. The Garnett translation is free but sometimes stiff, and the cast list and the long speeches take patience. Four and a half out of five (my opinion). Read it if: you want a classic that works as a cat-and-mouse thriller; you like novels about ideas, guilt and conscience; you are studying it and want a part-by-part guide; you want to know what the famous theory actually says before you read. Skip it if: you want a fast, light read: it is about two hundred thousand words; you dislike long speeches and feverish, repetitive inner monologue; you want a tidy, happy ending: the last pages are hopeful but unfinished.
A full-spoiler Crime and Punishment summary built on a day-by-day clock, the three Porfiry conversations and who holds a piece of the truth, with fever and Sonia counts from the Constance Garnett text, Project Gutenberg 2554. Summary: Crime and Punishment →
A penniless former student, Raskolnikov, kills a pawnbroker and her sister to test his theory that a few extraordinary people may step over the law. The novel follows his fever, his three conversations with the investigator Porfiry, his confession to Sonia, and his confession to the police. The summary on this page has full spoilers.
Constance Garnett's English translation, from the free Project Gutenberg ebook number 2554. Names and counts on this page follow her spelling, for example Sonia and Dounia.
Six parts and an epilogue. By our count the Garnett text is about 205,000 words, from the first chapter to the end of the epilogue, with the licence, contents and translator's preface left out.
In our reading, about two weeks from the first scene to the confession, then a jump to the epilogue, nine months into the sentence. That is our estimate from the novel's own time markers, which wobble in places. Part six even says Raskolnikov muddled certain dates.
In our reading, no single reason: the investigator Porfiry tells him he is the murderer, Sonia urges him to confess in the open, and Svidrigailov's death removes the last threat. The text also says he does not repent of the crime in prison. This is interpretation.
Not in this translation. Garnett spells the name Sonia, and the name appears 402 times in our count, 199 of them in part five.
