Fyodor Dostoyevsky

In many respects, Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” was the first true 20th Century novel — even though it was published in 1866. this story of murder, guilt, alienation and redemption set the stage for many modernist and existentialist works of the century that followed, and it continues to make it’s mark on both literature and film today.

Set in St. Petersburg, Russia, the novel focuses on Rashkolnikov, a young student who believes himself capable of greatness but feels frustrated by poverty and lack of opportunity. He decides that, because of his extraordinary potential, it would be justifiable for him to kill a miserly old pawnbroker and use her amassed fortune to achieve great things. When he acts on his plan, though, he panics, botches the robbery, and inadvertently kills a second woman without managing to steal the money. Tormented by this failure, Rashkolnikov sinks into malaise and questions his real motives for the crime — and all the while is hounded by an investigator who may or may not have proof of his guilt.

“Crime and Punishment” is renowned as one of the first — and still one of the greatest — examples of the psychological novel, in light of its intricate exploration of Rashkolnikov’s motivations and mental state. At the same time, it is a remarkable work of suspense: Tension builds as we wonder whether Rashkolnikov will get caught or whether he might even confess of his own accord. In fact, much like a crime potboiler, “Crime and Punishment” was published serially over the course of a year. The novel brought Dostoyevsky (November 11, 1821 – February 9, 1881) a desperately needed financial windfall that enabled him to catch up on his gambling debts, and his contemporaries, including the novelist Leo Tolstoy (1828 – 1910), immediately hailed it as a landmark. In the years since, Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939), Friedrich Nietzche (1844 – 1900), Jean-Paul Sarte (1905 – 1980) and Albert Camus (1913 – 1960), among others, have cited it as a direct influence.

ADDITIONAL FACTS

1. “Crime and Punisment” inspired two of Woody Allen’s most highly regarded films, “Crimes and Misdemeanors” (1989) and “Match Point” (2005).
2. In his late twenties, Dostoyevsky was sentenced to death by firing squad for participating in meetings of a clandestine left-wing political group. Czar Nicholas commuted the sentence at the last minute, and the author was sent to a Siberian labor camp for four years instead — an experience that indisputably inspired parts of “Crime and Punishment“.
3. Dostoyevsky struggled for years with a compulsive gambling habit. Luckily, he was ble to mine this compulsion for it’s literary value, producing the novel “The Gambler” in 1866.

James Joyce

James Joyce’s “Ulysses“; (1922) is widely regarded as the greatest novel written in English in the 20th Century. It retells Homer’s “Odyssey” in the context of a single day — June 16, 1904 — in Dublin, Ireland, recasting Homer’s great hero Odysseus in the unlikely guise of Leopold Bloom, an aging, cuckolded ad salesman who spends his day running errands and making various business appointments before he returns home at long last.

Though Bloom seems unassuming and ordinary, he emerges as a heroic figure, displaying compassion, forgiveness and generosity toward virtually everyone in the odd cast of characters he meets. In his mundane and often unnoticed deeds, he practices an everyday heroism that is perhaps the only heroism possible in the modern world. And despite the fact that he always feels like an outsider — he is a Jew in overwhelmingly Catholic Ireland — Bloom remains optimistic and dismisses his insecurities.

“Ulysses" is celebrated for it’s incredibly rich portraits of characters, it’s mind-boggling array of allusions to other literary and cultural works and it’s many innovations with language. Throughout the course of the novel, Joyce flirts with literary genres and forms ranging from drama to advertising copy to Old English. The novel is perhaps most famous for it’s extensive use of stream-of-consciousness narrative — Joyce’s attempt to render the inner thoughts of his characters exactly as they occur, with no effort to impose order or organization. This technique became a hallmark of modernist literature and influenced countless other writers, such as Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner, who also experimented with it in their works.

Not surprisingly, “Ulysses” poses a difficult journey for the reader, especially it’s famous last chapter, which recounts the thoughts of Bloom’s wife, Molly. molly’s reverie goes on for more than 24,000 words yet is divided into only eight mammoth sentences. Despite the challenge it poses, the chapter shows Joyce at his most lyrical, especially in the final lines, which reaffirm molly’s love for her husband despite her infidelity:

and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like made and yes I said yes I will yes.

ADDITIONAL FACT

1. “Ulysses” was banned for obsenity in the United States for nearly twelve (12) years because of it’s (mostly indirect) sexual energy.