A Note on the Translation

This is a complete translation of Crime and Punishment, made directly from Dostoevsky’s Russian. The source is the public-domain Russian text in modern spelling published by Russian Wikisource. Constance Garnett’s translation of 1914, also in the public domain, was consulted only where the Russian is in doubt. None of her wording is kept, and many of her choices are undone: she turned kopecks into pence, softened curses, and dropped phrases she found awkward.

Dostoevsky writes in a hurry, and the hurry is part of the book. His sentences pile qualification on qualification, break off, start again, and lean on small words such as “somehow,” “as if,” “almost,” and above all “suddenly.” The English keeps these, and keeps his ellipses where he has them. It does not smooth him into elegance or cut his feverish sentences into neat ones. Each character speaks in a voice of his own: Marmeladov in tavern grandiloquence, Porfiry with an insinuating “sir,” Luzhin in pompous legal phrases, Amalia Ivanovna in broken German-flavored English.

Russian names keep their full forms and their diminutives, so Raskolnikov is Rodion Romanovich to strangers and Rodya to his mother. Russian money, measures, and ranks stay Russian: roubles and kopecks, versts and arshins, titular and court councillors. One word needs explaining at the start. The Russian for “crime,” prestuplenie, means a stepping over, and Raskolnikov’s theory turns on the right to step over. The English renders that verb as “step over” throughout.

Every paragraph of the Russian appears here as one paragraph, in six parts and an epilogue. The 47 notes are the translator’s. They explain ranks, money, foreign phrases, and a few untranslatable puns, and offer no commentary.