In a morbid condition of the brain, dreams often have a singular actuality, vividness, and extraordinary semblance of reality. At times monstrous images are created, but the setting and the whole picture are so truth-like and filled with details so delicate, so unexpectedly, but so artistically consistent, that the dreamer, were an artist like Pushkin or Turgenev even, could never have invented them in the waking state. Such sick dreams always remain long in the memory and make a powerful impression on the overwrought and deranged nervous system.
This excerpt is highlighted on page 68 of my copy of Crime And Punishment, a novel authored by the great Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky. My paperback copy is translated by Constance Garnett. It is a Finger Print Classic, an imprint of Prakash Books India Pvt. Ltd. The back cover of my copy has the following summary printed aside of a bright red axe as large as the two paragraphs I share with you here.
Committing a murder was only the beginning for Raskolnikov. Now, he must deal with his guilt and the pursuit of justice before he descends into madness and despair.
A gripping tale of murder, guilt, and redemption, Crime and Punishment explores the darkest corners of the human psyche.
I have to admit I read a quarter of the novel before I showed an interest in the translator’s preface. Constance Garnett, in a few pages, gives a biological sketch of Fyodor Dostoevsky. He was the son of a doctor. His parents were very hard-working and deeply religious people, but so poor that they lived with their five children in only two rooms. The father and mother spent their evenings in reading aloud to their children, generally from books of a serious character. (This excerpt can be found in the Preface on page 5.)
Garnett continues to highlight how sickly and delicate Dostoyevsky was; yet he was able to do very well in the Petersburg school of Engineering. The poet Nekrassov published Dostoyevsky first work Poor Folk. It was well received by the public. Garnett shares that he was arrested and condemned to death in 1849 after being accused of taking part in conversations against the censorship of reading a letter from Byelinsky to Gogol, and of knowing of the intention to set up a printing press. He and twenty one others faced the firing squad until the last moment the Majesty spared their lives. Garnett goes on to write how all this stress invigorated an obscure nervous disease Dostoyevsky was afflicted with and escalated that into attacks of epilepsy. In 1859 he was allowed to return to Russia. Ten years of his life interrupted! Five years later he lost his first wife and his brother. He lived in terrible poverty burdened with debt including his late brother’s debt. Another journal Dostoyevsky published,The Epoch, was prohibited. I pause here with a great amount of admiration. Amazing that this writer, with the apparent weight of the world on his shoulders, could produce Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov. It is written by Garnett (in 1880) Dostoyevsky died. He was followed to the grave by a vast multitude of mourners who “gave the hapless man the funeral of a king.” He is still probably the most widely read writer in Russia.
I use the analogy of looking through a microscope as the reader of this novel focuses on the intricate details and attention the main character follows; Raskolnikov’s moment by moment thoughts, plans, and actions just before he commits the horrible murders followed by his descent into a feverish delirium does not miss a tear in the wall paper, a hole in a sock or wall. Every moment, detail, emotion, and fearful thought is magnified by the author’s prose. I am intrigued to follow Raskolnikov’s path into the pursuit of justice before he descends into madness and despair as I read Fyodor Dostoevsky masterpiece further, in the coming weeks.
My last novel I read was Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude. It gave me a totally different perspective. The analogy I use for that story is as follows; Marquez wrote his story using a wide angle lens on a large screen of panoramic family vista’s that produced years in a few pages, decades in a few chapters, and a century produced between his novel’s front and back cover. Crime And Punishment brings to mind the aforementioned analogy, prose seen through a microscope. A moment unfolds in a few pages, a day unfolds in a chapter. I have read more than a quarter of the novel so I can not report how many pages a week will take as it unfolds in Raskolnikov’s life.
At the lighthouse this month I reflect on an old societal chant I heard over and over when I was a young parent. No it wasn’t Smokey the Bear’s admonishment, Only you can prevent forest fires. ( Though I admit his message is needed today more than ever!) The chant I am referring to is, Reading Is Fundamental, (RIF). Fydor Dostoevsky’s biographical note, shared in the preface, states that despite their poverty, his parents read to him and his siblings a lot. Am I naive enough to believe that reading to your children is a stimulus that helps your children achieve literacy and maybe a love for reading? Well..yes I am. My children were read to and encouraged to read. I watch my adult children read to their children and enjoy seeing evidence of my grandchildren’s writing and reading skills. Continuing this pride and prejudice tour, one of our grandchildren read over sixteen novels this young year, and four this past week of school vacation for pleasure! (Note: none of her reading is related to school work and her grades are very good. She is a young teen and doesn’t own a smart phone.) I have another grandchild who was recently given an essay assignment that asked him to respond to the problem of being trapped in a snow globe. He wrote a solution that was thoughtful and logical. Yes he loves to be read to and now loves to read himself. Why am I driven to embarrass myself by sharing my family pride? Simply this, I read and listen to the news that our Country’s children’s reading skills are trending down. It is simple to say our education needs more financial support from the federal level, we already spend more than most other countries. I believe education starts in the family when possible. Educational support should be stronger at the local level. The State level supports the local with the final umbrella of support being administered at the Federal level. Our future is easy to see. it is lined up at the bus stop waiting for the yellow school bus at conjunction junction!
Thank you for reading.
Be at peace and joy!
Mark