To an extent artists create characters and then struggle with them to bring the book to the intended conclusion! But there can be a big gap between the simplicity of the original idea and the subtleties of the finished work. He became passionately attached to both”.

A notebook entry by Dostoevsky is that: “Svidrigailov is despair, the most cynical. There is a fascinating comparison between him and Raskolnikov. A few simply concluded that he was a great literary creation who had generous impulses suggesting compassion and who killed himself out of guilt. Mostly the group thought he was a murderer and a sexual predator. However, one of the most interesting figures, Svidrigailov also has blue eyes. So Raskolnikov’s inspiration and spiritual rescuer Sonya has blue eyes and dresses in yellow. And also colours are clues: yellow denotes suffering. Thus the characters’ names have in some cases other meanings in Russian. Some clues are lost to the English speaker. To refer to “pubs”sounds 20th century British and is, we thought, a mistake. As a detail “I do not give a spit” is clearly a Russian idiom and works. The more recent translations have sought to give the flavour of Russia. This would have been helpful as the reader expects the flavour of other authors of the same period. The first two may well have recognised this as a mid 19th century book. There have been eleven known translations into English of the book, published in Russia in 1866, starting with Whitshaw in 1885, then Garnett in 1914 and so far finishing with Ready in 2014. This matter of translation is always difficult unless one knows the language of the author.

However, the literal translation of the title is “Stepping Across”, which suggests the long journey he has before in the end he has crossed and achieved peace. The murder (and the unplanned killing of the pawnbroker’s sister) prompted the obvious debate as to why? The reasons given above are amended and refined in direct conversations with characters in the book and in Raskolnikov’s subsequent thoughts and agonies.

As a superior being he decides to take the life of the pawnbroker both to show that he is able to murder lesser beings and also because her wealth may be used better by him as a great soul. He preserves this certainty throughout the book (though possibly doubts are shown to emerge in the Epilogue). This had influenced Raskolnikov’s high perception of his own worth: “why do they love me so much, if I don’t deserve it?” To them and many others, he was good-looking, very intelligent and with a great future. His father had died and he was the centre of attention for his mother Pulkheria Raskolnikova and his sister Dunya. Rodion Romanovich, known as Raskolnikov, is a poor, hungry, student drop-out.

Crime and punishment 1866