The fifth lecture in Mayflower Bookshop’s Great Crime series will be given by Louis Smit on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. This lecture, given in Dutch, will explore crime in Russian literature.
In this novel, published in 1866, a desperate former student robs and kills an old rich pawnbroker, intending to use her money to break free out of poverty and do great deeds. Unlike most crime novels, this isn’t a mystery or whodunnit. The reader knows from the beginning who the murderer is.
Rather, Crime and Punishment focusses on the police’s pursuit of the killer and the psychological aspects, such as how the killer tries to justify his actions while dealing with guilt over what he has done. Furthermore, love and the unfortunate circumstances Russia finds itself in also come to play.
The novel is not all about the crime. The killer also faces punishment. Like Dostoevsky himself, he ends up in a penal camp to pay for his crime.
Sunday August 30, 2026: 16.00
Admission: Free
Mayflower Bookshop, Breestraat 70, Leiden