Dostoevsky was no stranger to adversity and struggle. Born into a family of nine in October 1821, his mother died when he was sixteen, causing the family split up. After Dostoevsky was sent to a military academy with his brother, their army surgeon father was murdered by his own serfs. Even his first wife (whose traits, critics say, manifest themselves in the character of Katerina Ivanvna) died of tuberculosis. Though his first book, Poor Folk, earned him an invitation into the Natural School of Russian Literature in the 1840s, he was convicted of subversion against Tsar Nicholas I in 1849 and exiled to Siberia. By the time Crime and Punishment was published in 1866, he had returned from exile and prison, and had developed the bleak outlook that pervades the novel.
I am definitely glad that I chose to read this book again! I noticed many details that I do not remember from the first time that I read it. Since I had just finished re-reading Notes from the Underground before starting Crime and Punishment, it was interesting to see the parallels between Raskolnikov and the Underground Man. However, Raskolnikov gets an end full of redemption and optimism, while the Underground Man does not. I l0ok forward to continuing to read Dostoevsky's works to study the development of the Underground Man.
Este es otro de los grandes clásicos de la literatura que me han vencido. Probablemente sea la rica vida interior de su personaje, esas conversaciones consigo mismo, esos desvarios... los que han acabado resultándome pesados. Tampoco ha ayudado el ambiente asfisiante que rodea a este personaje y que supongo tan bien retrata los suburbios de la Rusia de aquella época, a pesar de que la idea de que la novela transcurriese en un espacio de tiempo y físico limitado me resultaba atractivo. No es para mi y dudo que el haberlo leído en inglés haya ayudado en nada.