Pages 405-422

Dear Dostoevsky,
In your novel, Crime and Punishment, pages 405-422 are my favorite. The scene between Raskolnikov and Sonya is heart-wrenching and beautiful. You're kind of a genius.

Sincerely,
An Avid Reader

Some of the passages in those pages seriously make my heart melt.

"And suddenly a strange, unexpected feeling of corrosive hatred for Sonya came over his heart. As if surprised and frightened by this feeling, he suddenly raised his head and looked at her intently, but he met her anzious and painfully caring eyes fixed upon him; here was love; his hatred vanished like a phantom. That was not it; he had mistaken one feeling for another."

~Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, pg 408

This passage is so beautiful because it is the first time Dostoevsky uses the word "love" in Sonya and Raskolnikov's relationship. Four hundred and eight pages later, and we finally see the word "love." Genius.

"'And why, why did I tell her, why did I reveal it to her!' he exclaimed in despair after a moment, looking at her with infinite pain. 'Now you're waiting for explanations from me, Sonya, you're sitting and waiting, I can see that; and what am I going to tell you? Because you won't understand any of it; you'll only wear yourself out with suffering ... because of me! So, now you're crying and embracing me again --so, why are you embracing me? Because I couldn't endure it myself, and have come to shift the burden onto another: "You suffer too; it will be so much the easier for me!" Can you really love such a scoundrel?'"

~ Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, pg 414

"The two were sitting side by side, sad and crushed, as if they had been washed up alone on a deserted shore after a storm. He looked at Sonya and felt how much of her love was on him, and, strangely, he suddenly felt it heavy and painful to be loved like that. Yes, it was a strange and terrible feeling! On his way to see Sonya, he had felt she was his only hope and his only way out; he had thought he would be able to unload at least part of his torment; but now, suddenly, when her whole heart turned to him, he suddenly felt and realized that he was incomparably more unhappy that he had been before." ~ Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, pg 422

Maybe I'm just a nerd but those passages make my heart beat a little faster. And there are so many other parts of this novel that are outstanding. I wonder if there will ever be a current author who can show up the amazing authors of the 19th Century and earlier. Almost all of my favorite authors are from that time period: Dickens, Austen, Brontë, Dostoevsky, Dumas, Wilde, Hardy...

Lock me up in library and I'll be happy for days on end.