"What we're dealing with here, old bean, is modesty."
Crime and Punishment Week 15: Book Three, Chapter 1
Welcome to Week 15 of my slow-read of Crime and Punishment. This week’s chapter is Part Three, Chapter 1.
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This week’s characters
Characters in this week’s chapter in the order that they are mentioned:
Razumikhin • Pulkheria Alexandrovna • Dunya • Nastasya • Zosimov
Part Three, Chapter 1 Synopsis
All quotations in this post are taken from Roger Cockrell’s translation of 2022, Alma Classics, © Roger Cockrell 2022
We left Raskolnikov having fainted at seeing his mother and sister in his room. Nastasya has relayed to them how Raskolnikov had thrown Luzhin out. Raskolnikov tells Dunya that she must break off the engagement with Luzhin.
You think I’m being delirious, don’t you? No… You’re marrying Luzhin for my sake. And I don’t accept the sacrifice. […] It’s either me or Luzhin!
The two women are understandably distraught at Raskolnikov’s request and the state he’s in. Razumikhin takes them out onto the landing and tells them quite impassionedly that they must leave Raskolnikov alone for the time being. They reluctantly agree and Razumikhin walks them to their accommodation, spouting all kinds of nonsense about truth and mistakes. I actually found it quite sweet. He lambasts Luzhin for the lodgings he’s provided for the ladies, going so far as to call him a swine. He compares Luzhin to his drunk friends and Luzhin falls short in every way.
We all realized earlier today, as soon as he came in to the room, that this man wasn’t our sort of person. [...] Try to understand, ladies," he said suddenly, as they were climbing the stairs to their lodgings, "all those people at my place at the moment may be drunk, but at least they're all honest, and we may talk nonsense, because I, too, talk nonsense - but in the end, through talking nonsense, we'll finally arrive at the truth, because we're going in the right direction... whereas Pyotr Petrovich... isn't. I may have said some extremely unkind things about them just now, but I respect them all, every one of them. I may not respect Zamyotov, I suppose, but I'm fond of him, because he's a little puppy! Even that frightful man Zosimov because he's honest and good at what he does...
Razumikhin leaves the Dunya and Pulkheria Alexandrovna after instructing them to lock their door and not open it to anyone until his return. He comes back and reports that Raskolnikov is asleep and is likely to stay that way for hours. He then dashes off to fetch Zosimov, the doctor, to bring him to Raskolnikov’s. On the way over, they have an interesting discussion. Zosimov finds Dunya to be ‘an entrancing girl’, at which Razumikhin becomes impassioned and grabs Zosimov by the throat. They laugh it off, and Razumikhin goes on to tell Zosimov that he finds Raskolnikov’s landlady attractive. The relationship is one of modesty and chastity, and yet she ‘melts like wax… she’s such a captivating woman.’ He’s smitten.
Thoughts
There’s not a whole lot to this chapter in terms of plot or character development. The conversation between Razumikhin and Zosimov is the highlight for me here. I love Razumikhin; he’s so big-hearted and lovable, which is a really nice contrast with Raskolnikov. Razumikhin lives in the moment and wears his heart on his sleeve. Raskolnikov is introspective and intellectual to a fault. I can relate more to Raskolnikov than to Razumikhin, but I do have friends like Razumikhin and it makes all the difference in the world. His outgoing nature is a breath of fresh air in this dark, philosophical novel.
Which character do you relate to, if any?
Translation Points
I just love Roger Cockrell’s use of ‘old bean’ in this part of Razumikhin’s discussion with Dr Zosimov. It’s so interesting to see how others have dealt with this. The Russian is ‘брат/brat’, literally ‘brother’. Five translators have stuck with ‘brother’, two have gone with ‘friend’, and Cockrell has gone with ‘old bean’. I think ‘old bean’ fits the context perfectly here. Would that term have been used in the 1850s? I can’t be sure, but it sounds like it could have been.
And then there are the translations of Преавенантненькая / Preavenantnen’kaya, a word that I had never come across before in all my years of studying Russian. If you search for it online, the references are all pointing to Crime and Punishment.
Garnett - She’s most prepossessing
Coulson - A fetching creature!
McDuff - She’s a dish!
P&V - She’s such a winsome little thing!
Ready - She’s simply too avenante!
Pasternak Slater - A most fetching creature!
Katz - She’s a most charming creature!
Cockrell - She’s such a captivating woman!
Once again, I prefer Cockrell’s translation here. It just seems to fit the context well. As for Ready’s avenante, it might seem strange to choose a French word here, but the original Russian is derived from the French avenant. It breaks down as follows:
Pre-avenant-nen’kaya. The prefix pre- is ‘excessive, too’; avenant is French and translates as ‘pleasant, charming’; and the suffix -nen’kaya is a Russian feminine adjectival ending with a diminutive endearment added in. So it’s basically a Russified French word made cute. Ready has clearly given this some thought. It’s in italics in his translation.
All translations are in the comparison spreadsheet.
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I too loved Razoemichin in this chapter. He's like a big puppy himself. Tiring but sweet.
The Dutch translation seems to suggest that Razoemichin more or less urges Zosimow to take the landlady off his hands - so that Razoemichin himself is free for Raskolnikovs sister. Is that how it is in the original as well? Or is this a specific interpretation by the Dutch translator?
(By the way, for your old bean he has chosen 'chap'.)