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The Sinner and the Saint: Dostoevsky and the Gentleman Murderer Who Inspired a Masterpiece
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68
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
83/100Critics
53/100Scholars
Author:
Kevin Birmingham
Publisher:
Penguin Press
Date:
November 16, 2021
A literary scholar delves into Dostoevsky's conception and composition of Crime and Punishment after his radical politics condemned him to a long Siberian exile and, once back in St. Petersburg in the 1860s, struggles with gambling and other personal crises. Birmingham argues that the inspiration for Crime and Punishment's protagonist Raskolnikov came from the sensational story of Pierre François Lacenaire, a murderer who charmed and outraged Paris in the 1830s.
What The Reviewers Say
Birmingham’s chapters on Dostoyevsky’s exile are among the finest.
Dexterous.
... tautly constructed.
... interpretive and immersive.
