Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky(page 4)

Chapter V
‘Of course, I’ve been meaning lately to go to
Razumihin’s to ask for work, to ask him to get me lessons
or something …’ Raskolnikov thought, ‘but what help
can he be to me now? Suppose he gets me lessons,
suppose he shares his last farthing with me, if he has any
farthings, so that I could get some boots and make myself
tidy enough to give lessons … hm … Well and what then?
What shall I do with the few coppers I earn? That’s not
what I want now. It’s really absurd for me to go to
Razumihin….’
The question why he was now going to Razumihin
agitated him even more than he was himself aware; he
kept uneasily seeking for some sinister significance in this
apparently ordinary action.
‘Could I have expected to set it all straight and to find a
way out by means of Razumihin alone?’ he asked himself
in perplexity.
He pondered and rubbed his forehead, and, strange to
say, after long musing, suddenly, as if it were
spontaneously and by chance, a fantastic thought came
into his head.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky(page 3)

unexpectedly. We thought and talked it
over the whole day. He is a well-to-do
man, to be depended upon, he has two
posts in the government and has already
made his fortune. It is true that he is fortyfive
years old, but he is of a fairly
prepossessing appearance and might still be
thought attractive by women, and he is
altogether a very respectable and
presentable man, only he seems a little
morose and somewhat conceited. But
possibly that may only be the impression he
makes at first sight. And beware, dear
Rodya, when he comes to Petersburg, as
he shortly will do, beware of judging him
too hastily and severely, as your way is, if
there is anything you do not like in him at
first sight. I give you this warning, although
I feel sure that he will make a favourable
impression upon you. Moreover, in order

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky(page 2)

Katerina Ivanovna and she laid thirty roubles on the table
before her in silence. She did not utter a word, she did not
even look at her, she simply picked up our big green drap
de dames shawl (we have a shawl, made of drap de dames),
put it over her head and face and lay down on the bed
with her face to the wall; only her little shoulders and her
body kept shuddering…. And I went on lying there, just
as before…. And then I saw, young man, I saw Katerina
Ivanovna, in the same silence go up to Sonia’s little bed;
she was on her knees all the evening kissing Sonia’s feet,
and would not get up, and then they both fell asleep in
each other’s arms … together, together … yes … and I …
lay drunk.’
Marmeladov stopped short, as though his voice had
failed him. Then he hurriedly filled his glass, drank, and
cleared his throat.
‘Since then, sir,’ he went on after a brief pause—‘Since
then, owing to an unfortunate occurrence and through
information given by evil- intentioned persons—in all
which Darya Frantsovna took a leading part on the pretext
that she had been treated with want of respect—since then
my daughter Sofya Semyonovna has been forced to take a
yellow ticket, and owing to that she is unable to go on

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky(page 1)

Crime and Punishment
2 of 967
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE
A few words about Dostoevsky himself may help the
English reader to understand his work.
Dostoevsky 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.
Though always sickly and delicate Dostoevsky came
out third in the final examination of the Petersburg school
of Engineering. There he had already begun his first work,
‘Poor Folk.’
This story was published by the poet Nekrassov in his
review and was received with acclamations. The shy,
unknown youth found himself instantly something of a
celebrity.