Crime and Punishment

I finished reading Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. A few years ago I tried to read "The Idiot" but got distracted about a third of the way in, and never finished it. So this is my first successful foray into 19th century Russian literature.

I must say, I actually rather enjoyed it. It was somewhat of a tough read that took some energy, but it was rewarding. I probably would have more enjoyed a better translation, but this one (the 1914 Constance Garnett) was mostly intelligible. There were passages every so often that wouldn't make any sense, which I'm not sure if it was just due to poor translating, or if the phrases used made more sense in 1914 than they do now. I will admit, Svidrigailov's suicide was a bit of a surprise to me, perhaps I wasn't picking up on all the nuances of his character or something. I had to do some online reading to fully understand why he did it.

I'm not really sure what it was about the book, but I just liked it. Perhaps it was brutal honesty of Raskolnikov's character, or maybe it was something completely different. Either way, I enjoyed it. Just thought I'd say that.