I’ve always been a fairly avid reader of books but I still have my hot and cold periods depending on how much time I have.
In 1849 Fyodor Dostoevsky was sentenced to execution but was pardoned at the last minute by the tzar, this was common at the time. Fyodor Dostoevsky went on to be one of the most influential Russian authors of all time. It’s hard to say if mock executions were a real thing back then as it will be very hard to get any info on the same. But he describes what he felt in the Idiot.
I happened to come across Dostoevsky while watching a tv show and I got intrigued by his words. I ended up buying the book – Crime & Punishment to start and ended up getting some of his other books. From what I’ve read, I can see the resemblance of his writing in each of his books and it always points toward things like regret, consciousness, utilitarian world, empathy, compassion, humility, guilt & how can you expect anything else from a person who has suffered so much while in exile?
All of his writing seems like a philosophical dialogue wrapping around a narrative. If you want to keep going with his writing The Brothers Karamazov is considered his magnum opus, while also being considered one of the best books ever written.
In my eyes, Dostoevsky understood the human condition like nobody else. To endure that level of pain and suffering and still come out as a decent person in some way. Although a lot can be debated about his affairs in his marriage and relationships again, they made him write more books.
C&P was so well-written that I got a real sense of the anxiety Raskolnikov felt as he became more and more guilt-ridden. I had to remind myself that I wasn’t the one to ax the old lady in her head.
Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.