C&P · St. Petersburg · July, in a heat wave
Who’s who in Crime and Punishment
Every major character, every name they go by, and the color each one keeps in Chromatics for the whole novel — in the Constance Garnett translation, the one in the app and on Project Gutenberg.
C&P · A word about the names
Why everyone has three names
Russians of Dostoevsky’s era carry a first name, a patronymic — their father’s name with -ovitch or -ovna attached — and a surname. Which one you use depends on who you are to them: Rodion Romanovitch to a police inspector, Rodya to your mother, Raskolnikov to the narrator. Add diminutives, and one anxious student answers to three or four names before breakfast. Dostoevsky’s first readers heard the warmth or chill in every variation; the rest of us flip back nineteen pages to check. This page exists for the flipping-back. The colors below are the longer-term fix.
C&P · The cast, by household
The cast
The Raskolnikovs
- Raskolnikov= Rodion Romanovitch = Rodya The student. The axe. The seven-hundred-page argument with his own theory. Red in the app, on every page he speaks.
- Dounia= Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikov His sister, and the spine of the family. Pursued by two of the worst men in Russian literature; handles both.
- Pulcheria Alexandrovnatheir mother Writes the letter that sets the plot moving, then arrives in person to not be told anything by anyone.
The Marmeladovs
- Sonia= Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladov Marmeladov’s daughter, the novel’s quiet center of gravity. The person Raskolnikov tells first.
- Marmeladov= Semyon Zaharovitch The drunk clerk whose tavern confession in Part I out-aches everything around it. Father of Sonia.
- Katerina Ivanovnahis wife Consumptive, proud, and magnificent in fury — see the memorial-dinner scene below.
Suitors, friends, and predators
- Razumihin= Dmitri Prokofitch Raskolnikov’s loyal, talkative friend — the one functioning person in the book.
- Luzhin= Pyotr Petrovitch Dounia’s fiancé, a lawyer who wants a wife poor enough to be grateful. It does not go his way.
- Svidrigaïlov= Arkady Ivanovitch Dounia’s former employer, following her to Petersburg. Charming, wealthy, and the abyss with manners.
- Lebeziatnikov= Andrey Semyonovitch Luzhin’s roommate, a collector of progressive opinions — who picks the one moment that matters to be brave.
The investigation
- Porfiry Petrovitchno surname given, in the entire novel The examining magistrate. Conducts three conversations with Raskolnikov that are the chess match of the book.
- Ilya Petrovitch“the Explosive Lieutenant” The police lieutenant with the temper — and, by accident of shift schedules, the man who receives the confession.
- Zossimovthe doctor Attends Raskolnikov’s fever and diagnoses everything except what is actually wrong.
The pawnbroker’s flat
- Alyona Ivanovnathe pawnbroker The old woman with the keys on her belt. The theory is about her; the axe is for her.
- Lizaveta Ivanovnaher half-sister Gentle, put-upon, and in the wrong room at the wrong moment. She speaks so rarely the app never assigns her a color — which is rather the point of her.
Honest footnote: fourteen people in this book speak often enough to earn a color, and the palette holds twelve — so Sonia shares her teal with Lebeziatnikov and the two police men share a purple. In four hundred pages you will notice exactly once.
Marmeladov rooms · Memorial dinner · Pt V
Or skip the list. The color tells you.
Here is the memorial-dinner scene, three speakers deep in chaos. You have never met these people before this page, and you can still follow every accusation — Luzhin in indigo, Sonia in teal, Katerina Ivanovna in rose. That is what this page looks like in the app, and why, a few chapters in, you stop needing character lists at all.
“I have taken nothing,” Sonia whispered in terror, “you gave me ten roubles, here it is, take it.”
“And the hundred roubles you do not confess to taking?” he insisted reproachfully, not taking the note.
“What!” cried Katerina Ivanovna, suddenly realising the position, and she rushed at Luzhin. “What! You accuse her of stealing? Sonia? Ah, the wretches, the wretches!”
“Hold that mad woman!” he shouted.
Your shelf · Nearby
Keep going
The book’s own page is here. If the patronymics didn’t scare you off, the rest of the Russian novels collection is where this kind of reading gets habit-forming. And the other famous who’s-who problem in the catalog — two women with the same name, one of them a ghost — has a family tree.
Stop flipping back to check who Rodya is. Crime and Punishment is featured in Chromatics now — free in full, colors included.
Start reading freeFree on iPhone and iPad, currently through TestFlight. On Android? Leave an email.