"He Would Have Stepped Over All the Obstacles without a Care in the World"

Crime and Punishment Week 15: Book Three, Chapter 2

Welcome to Week 16 of my slow-read of Crime and Punishment. This week’s chapter is Part Three, Chapter 2.

Please bookmark the homepage for the read-along. Here, you’ll find links to everything you need as we read the novel together.

• Crime and Punishment homepage

• Chapter summaries and analysis

• Weekly chat thread for each chapter

• Reading schedule

• Cast of characters page

---

If you enjoy this content and would like to help me to keep it going, please consider a paid subscription.
Thank you. 🙏🏻

Subscribed

---

This week’s characters

Characters in this week’s chapter in the order that they are mentioned:

Razumikhin • Zosimov • Pulkheria Alexandrovna • Dunya

---

This is a chapter that doesn’t really go anywhere in terms of plot development. All we really get is a bit more about what kind of character Luzhin, with his instructions to keep Raskolnikov away during his impending visit. It’s not entirely surprising behaviour under the circumstances, but if I were wooing a young lady and her brother had been mean to me, I would be trying to figure out what went wrong and make amends.

I’m at a bit of a loss about what else I can say about this chapter, and that fact led to my procrastinating on it and then publishing a week late. Sorry about that. I’m looking forward to reading what

Dana • Dostoevsky Bookclub

says about this bit of the novel.

Part Three, Chapter 2 Synopsis

All quotations in this post are taken from Roger Cockrell’s translation of 2022, Alma Classics, © Roger Cockrell 2022

Razumikhin wakes up feeling regret for having been drunk and for verbally attacking Luzhin to Dunya. He’s not feeling good about himself at all, particularly at having ‘blabbed a whole load of drunken nonsense to him … about various things … including that you [Zosimov] were afraid … something to the effect he might be inclined to insanity …’.

Zosimov talks of Zamyotov and the things that he had said to him and to the lead investigator, Porfiry. We’ve yet to meet Porfiry, but he has been mentioned before, when Razumikhin told Raskolnikov that Porfiry wanted to see him. Zosimov takes his leave of Razumikhin after explaining that Praskovya Pavlovna had made tea for him in the samovar but that he’d not had the pleasure of a face to face meeting with her. Razumikhin heads off to Bakaleyev’s house where Dunya and Pulkheria Alexandrovna are staying. He’s surprised to receive a warm reception.

Pulkheria Alexandrovna grills Razumikhin about Raskolnikov’s health and disposition, whereupon Razumikhin goes into a a long explanation of just how dislikeable and neurotic Raskolnikov really is. He paints rather a bleak picture of him. Pulkheria Alexandrovna responds by saying what a capricious child he was and goes on to talk about how she felt when he had announced his engagement to his landlady’s daughter.

"And do you think," Pulkheria Alexandrovna continued heatedly, "do you think that my tears, my pleading, my illness, my death perhaps from grief, our poverty, would have stopped him? No, he would have stepped over all obstacles without a care in the world. And yet... and yet, he can't really not love us, can he?"

This is an interesting paragraph as it uses the phrasal verb ‘stepped over’. I’ll look at this below in the Translation Points section.

Razumikhin explains to Pulkheria Alexandrovna that Raskolnikov’s fiancée was no catch and that her own mother was against the match. No one can understand what the relationship was about. They then go on to discuss Raskolnikov’s behaviour when he threw Luzhin out. Pulkheria Alexandrovna explains that Luzhin had arranged to come round that morning, but instead had sent a letter. It begins with an apology at not meeting them at the station on their arrival, and again for not coming round this morning. He declares that he will come to visit the following day and that on no account is Raskolnikov to be present. He goes on to discuss the Marmeladov affair and mentions Raskolnikov’s giving 25 roubles to Sonya, a woman of ill repute.

Dunya is of a mind to ensure that Raskolnikov be there come what may. They head off to Raskolnikov’s apartment and as they go up the stairs they clock two beady eyes peering through a crack on the landing, an obvious call back to the old pawnbroker’s eyes when Raskolnikov called round to her apartment.

There’s a bit here where Pulkheria Alexandrovna talks of having dreamed of Marfa Petrovna and goes on to explain to Razumikhin that Marfa Petrovna had died. She was the wife of Svidrigailov and the former employer of Dunya. I’m not sure what the point of that reference is. She died. Razumikhin has no idea who she was. Is it an example of what Pulkheria Alexandrovna then goes on to describe herself as ‘rather scatty’?

Translation Points

Okay, the paragraph I’ve selected has the phrasal verb to step over. The Russian has the verb перешагнуть / pereshagnut’. It literally means to cross; to step over. This is the basic premise of Raskolnikov’s modus operandi, to transcend moral boundaries, to step over, to cross to the other side. His mother uses that verb to describe his personality. Has he always believed that he’s special?

The eight translations have used different verbs as follows:

1. Disregard (Garnett)

2. Trample over (Coulson)

3. Step over (McDuff, P&V, Ready, Cockrell)

4. Walk over (Pasternak Slater)

5. Overstep (Katz)

Head over to the Translation Comparison spreadsheet to see all eight translations of the full paragraph.

---

Request a Translation Comparison

Paid subscribers may request translation comparisons for anything that jumps out in whichever translation you’re reading.

Once requested, it will be added to the public translation comparison spreadsheet.

---

Thank you for reading

Thank you for reading with me.

This book group is entirely funded by its readers. If you enjoy my posts, please consider a paid subscription to support me and this work.

Or if you’d rather just buy me a coffee, I’d be very grateful!