Reddit reviews Crime and Punishment

Could not disagree more. This is a very very basic introduction to Dostoyevsky; it has the unfortunate fate to be translated by Constance Garrett. She was industrious, and 19th century Russian authors owe much to her efforts to bring them to the west, but, my gosh, she was a horrid translator.

Garnett’s flaws were not the figment of a native speaker’s snobbery. She worked with such speed, with such an eye toward the finish line, that when she came across a word or a phrase that she couldn’t make sense of she would skip it and move on. Life is short, “The Idiot” long. Garnett is often wooden in her renderings, sometimes unequal to certain verbal motifs and particularly long and complicated sentences. The typescripts of Nabokov’s lectures, which he delivered while teaching undergraduates at Wellesley and Cornell, are full of anti-Garnett vitriol; his margins are a congeries of pencilled exclamations and crabby demurrals on where she had “messed up.”

Readers who enjoy this audiobook really, really, really should read Richard Pevear and Larrisa Volokhonsky's authentic translations, which make the prose come as alive as the original did for Russian readers. The difference is breathtaking. Dostoyevsky fairly sings; the language takes on an air not often seen in western fiction and the depth of meaning, transmission of soul is awe inspiring.

Listen to this thing if you must, but if you want to have an exceptional experience, read/listen to Peaver and Volokhonsky, and leave Miss Garrett in the bargain bin.