Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1866)

For some reason I never experienced the Russian novel in high school, so here we have, just 20 years later, my first taste of Dostoevsky. Thanks to War and Peace (and Leo Tolstoy in general), Russian literature may seem like a collection of large, impenetrable works. While Crime and Punishment is hardly a short story, it isn't endless and it's setting is quite confined, not an epic sweep. Most of the action happens in small apartments, taverns, and, on occasion, the streets of St. Petersburg. Although not something to speed read, the translation is modern, fresh, and clear.

This wraps up my "classic" reading for the year. For the sake of my own personal classification, I have only applied that label to books in the Novels for Students series, which is a little misleading in that I read books that are classics in spirit, but just not included in that series, and the series itself includes some books that are arguably yet to the be classics. For example, Starship Troopers, a 65 year old work, was placed with science fiction, but Annie John, a mere 29, is here with the classics.

The books in review:
Wuthering Heights - an equally challenging/rewarding reading experience
Animal Farm - easy to read, but important and timeless. I read it in high school and it was totally worth a second reading.
Annie John - the debut novel of Jamaica Kincaid, perhaps a "classic of the future"?
The Awakening and Other Stories - once daring, now dated/quaint tale of a woman struggling within the confines of her "role" in society
Crime and Punishment - see above!