The last thing I really need in my life right now, what with Baby Caveman keeping me on my toes and edits (and a lot of rewriting) of Incubus taking up my writing time, is another project, but that is exactly what I have here.

Editing is a lot of work, and I am enjoying it, but I feel like I need to create something new as well. After a lot of thinking about it, I decided to tackle The Raskolnikov Project, a contemporary YA heavily influenced by Crime & Punishment. It’s an idea I have been toying with for a long, long time, and I think it is the perfect thing for me to be doing right now.

But I am not just writing this book. I am writing it live and online. I will be posting the book chapter by chapter (short chapters, since it is an online format) at TheRaskolnikovProject.RachelBateman.com. I am posting the book as it comes to me – no outlining and no editing allowed. It will be raw and messy and tons of fun!

Chapter One is up now, and I will be adding new material at least once a week. So go check it out – I will love you infinitely if you read along!

I first read Crime & Punishment as a junior in high school. I loathed every second of reading and discussing the book. English class became my least favorite time of day and I seriously dreaded having to pick the book up at night to read for the next day’s discussion. How, you might wonder, did a book I hated so vehemently become my favorite ever?

One would think that if I hated the book so badly, I wouldn’t ever give it a re-read. And that makes sense, but what goes on in my head rarely makes sense, so re-reading my most hated book just kinda goes with the flow.

Okay, what really happened: my first semester in college I had a lot of credits I had to fill. I went into college with 26 credits. You can’t register as a sophomore until you have 30, so I had to register with the freshman. Which is fine, except that it meant most of the classes I needed to get into were full by the time I was able to register, leaving me credits to fill. On a whim, because I thought it was intriguing, I filled some of those credits by taking a Russian language class. By the end of the class I was intrigued enough by Russian language and culture to give the book another shot (why I went with this one again instead of reading a different Russian novel is beyond me…but, like I said, I rarely make sense).

That summer, I picked up the book again. Only this time reading it was like a dream. It was so exciting! I couldn’t get enough, and even though it took me forever to read (Russian novels are dense…I have read this book about 6000 times and it still takes me a while to get through each time), I felt like I was blowing through it the way I would a beach read. It turns out Crime and Punishment is compulsively readable. The characters are rich and the plot is compelling. The psychological and religious overtones are layered enough that I get a little more each time I read it. After hating it so passionately, it quickly turned into my very favorite book ever.

So it goes without saying that I think everyone should read this book at least once. But which version? It has been translated many, many times (I think I have read 5 or 6 different translations). I have never read the original Russian (though, as I continue to study the language, reading this book in its original form is one of my biggest goals), but there is still one translation that stands out to me: Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky’s.

If you had to read this book for school, chances are you read a translation by Constance Garnett. It is the translation that is most widely distributed, and it is the translation that generally makes it into the classroom. And it is a good translation, don’t get me wrong. But it is not the best.

For a long time, Constance Garnett was the translator for Russian to English text. She translated all the greats – Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Gogol, Pushkin, Chekhov – but she translated them all in her voice. One of the hardest parts of translating a text is preserving the original authorial voice in that text, and that is something that Constance Garnett was not adept at doing. Reading her translations of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, it is darn near impossible to tell the two apart. They have distinct voices, but she inputs so much of her own voice in the translations that theirs are hidden. So, while you will still get a good book out of her translation, you will lose some of Dostoevsky’s touch.

So, if all you can get your hands on is a Constance Garnett translation, by all means read it. But if you have choices, I suggest you try to find a copy translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volonkhonsky. It is the most readable translation I have read, not because the language is any less dense (those Russian authors like their thick language), but because the voice is smoother. I really can’t describe it better than that. It’s just a great translation. And while I personally haven’t read the original, it has been said by those who have that this translation is the most faithful to Dostoevky’s original text.

One last note about the version you read and then I am done rambling about reading this book:

If you can find an edition that has extensive footnotes or endnotes, definitely get it. And read those notes. Dostoevsky wrote this book for his contemporaries to read and it is dripping with cultural references. Unless you are well-versed in Russian history of the time, there will be references that just don’t make sense. The book is still readable without knowing the references (just like Gilmore Girls is still watchable even if you don’t get all the pop culture references), but it mush richer if you understand what he is talking about. Some good foot-or-endnotes will help with that. Also, as in a lot of Russian literature of the time, there are quite a few French quotes in the book. Since they were in French in the original Russian, they remain in French in the translation. Having footnotes translating the French into English is incredibly helpful.

Okay, I am done. I promise. Now go out and read you some Crime & Punishment. I know I am going to have to reread it soon now!

Who are your favorite literary couples?  (You know – the ones you like by themselves, but LOVE together!)

I would be lying if I didn’t mention Ron and Hermione here, because I love them together (and apart, but mostly together). I was so excited when they finally got together after all those years of build-up.

Love, love, love.

But, I also have another favorite coupling, and it’s one that is not so obviously awesome. My favorite couple, even above Ron and Hermione, is:

Raskolnikov and Sonya from Crime and Punishment.

Raskolnikov and Sonya meet under terrible conditions – after the death of her drunkard father. She is a very spiritual woman who is forced into prostitution to support her crazy step-mother and younger siblings. When the two meet, Raskolnikov is suffering from immense guilt and Sonya, through her faith, helps him cope.

The two come to love each other and eventually Raskolnikov confesses to her that he murdered two people. Even though one of his victims was her friend, Sonya stands by him as he confesses to the authorities and then follows him to prison. How’s that for a dedicated couple?

In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day, YA Highway wants us to all write a limerick about our favorite books and/or works in progress.

Holy commas! This one was hard. Apparently I have lost my touch since my stellar Freshman-Year-English-Class limerick. Of course, my determination to write one for both a WIP and my favorite book didn’t make the task any easier.

Are you ready? (I don’t think you really are.) Here we go…

Crime & Punishment:

He thought he could kill without guilt
Now the house of cards that he built
is starting to fall.
Now only a call
girl can help him to fix the tilt.

Jack the Reaper

There once was a girl named Jack
whose family was kind of wack.
They’d get orders to kill
and they’d have to fulfill,
’cause reapers aren’t cut any slack.

There you have it; my mad limerick skillz at work. Want to join in the fun? Head over to YA Highway and share a limerick of your own.