Xavier Ray’s Reviews > Crime and Punishment > Status Update

This passage is the novel’s moral heartbeat. Amid guilt and chaos, Raskolnikov suddenly senses what Dostoevsky believes to be the truth of the human condition: the instinct to cling to life, even at its bleakest, is stronger than reason, pride, or despair. It’s the beginning of conscience reasserting itself — the pulse of humanity still alive beneath his crime.

I’ve fallen in love with Crime and Punishment. The night of the murders is one of the most feverish, gripping, and psychologically charged passages I’ve ever read. The pacing feels manic and inevitable, every sentence pushing forward like a heartbeat. Dostoevsky writes madness and guilt with such control that it feels almost symphonic. He’s an absolute master.