Welcome back to The Invisible College, my series of literature courses for paid subscribers. The introduction to and schedule for the 2025 season is here. The 2024 archive is here. This episode, the seventh in a sequence on modern western world literature, concerns the second half of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. We focus on the novel’s more and more “Dostoevskean” tone with scenes of collective hysteria, as well as its developing Christian didacticism. We consider Nabokov’s criticism in more detail: is Raskolnikov’s motive coherent? We explore Dostoevsky’s satire of the materialist left and of the figure of Romantic evil. We dream Raskolnikov’s dream. First 10 minutes are free, the following two hours are for paid subscribers. Next week: Tolstoy. Please like, share, comment, and subscribe! The slideshow corresponding to the episode can be downloaded behind the paywall:
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