Book of the week: The Sinner and the Saint by Kevin Birmingham
Kevin Birmingham explores Fyodor Dostoevsky’s inspiration for Crime and Punishment
In his 2014 debut, The Most Dangerous Book, Kevin Birmingham told the gripping story of how “a drunken night in a Dublin pub” inspired James Joyce to write Ulysses, said Boris Fishman in The New York Times. In his new book, Birmingham “does it again” – this time giving “the Ulysses treatment” to Crime and Punishment.
Birmingham shows how Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 1866 novel – about a double murder committed by a former student named Raskolnikov – was partly inspired by a real-life murderer: the French poet Pierre-François Lacenaire, who in 1834 stabbed to death a convicted thief and his widowed mother. (Later the same day, he attended a comedy show. “That was a great day for me,” he would recall.)
The case became the talk of Paris. Reading about it nearly three decades later, Dostoevsky found Lacenaire to be “enigmatic, frightening and gripping” – and used him as a model for Raskolnikov. Braiding the stories of the two together, Birmingham has written a “magisterially immersive, novelistic account” of how a masterpiece of Russian literature came to be written.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Birmingham’s account also reveals some striking parallels between the lives of Lacenaire and Dostoevsky, said Anna Aslanyan in The Spectator. Both writers were from wealthy backgrounds, but fell into poverty in adulthood. Both were incarcerated for significant periods: Lacenaire’s petty thieving landed him in prison, while Dostoevsky’s youthful radicalism led to a ten-year exile in Siberia. (While there, he met numerous murderers, and recorded his observations in a secret diary.)
Writing The Sinner and the Saint can’t have been easy – the “sheer weight of sources” must have been overwhelming – but Birmingham shifts the “historical layers with seeming ease”. The result is a book that “works on several levels: as a historical study, a work of literary criticism and, gratifyingly, a double thriller”.
Crime and Punishment is often described as a “whydunnit”, said Alex Christofi in The Guardian: Raskolnikov commits his crime near the start of the book, and it’s never entirely clear what drives him to it. But for modern readers, another mystery “hovers behind the novel” – how can we ever account for a work of genius like that, which appears to have “sprung into the world fully formed”?
In exploring how Dostoevsky’s masterpiece came to life, Birmingham goes a long way to answering that question. This is “not just a fitting tribute to one of the great works of literature, but a dazzling literary detective story in its own right”.
Allen Lane 432pp £25; The Week Bookshop £19.99
The Week Bookshop
To order this title or any other book in print, visit theweekbookshop.co.uk, or speak to a bookseller on 020-3176 3835. Opening times: Monday to Saturday 9am-5.30pm and Sunday 10am-4pm.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Today's political cartoons - November 3, 2024
Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - presidential pitching, wavering convictions, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Why Man United finally lost patience with ten Hag
Talking Point After another loss United sacked ten Hag in hopes of success in the Champion's League
By The Week UK Published
-
Who are the markets backing in the US election?
Talking Point Speculators are piling in on the Trump trade. A Harris victory would come as a surprise
By The Week UK Published
-
Vanessa Bell: A World of Form and Colour – an 'expansive' exhibition
The Week Recommends The 'sweeping' show features over 140 works from paintings to ceramics
By The Week UK Published
-
Kate Summerscale picks her favourite true crime books
The Week Recommends The writer shares works by Janet Malcolm, Helen Garner and Mark O'Connell
By The Week UK Published
-
The Forsyte Saga: 'faultless' production with a 'pitch-perfect' cast
The Week Recommends Theatrical adaptation of John Galsworthy's novels is a 'must-see' show
By The Week Published
-
6 exciting homes for athletes
Feature Featuring a rock-climbing wall in New York and a basketball-tennis court in Washington
By The Week Staff Published
-
Peter Ames Carlin's 6 favorite books on pop culture icons
Feature The author recommends works by James McBride, Jim Bouton, and more
By The Week US Published
-
The Wild Robot: animated adventure is 'warm, funny and wise'
The Week Recommends 'Sharply written and richly detailed' adaptation of Peter Brown's best-selling book
By The Week UK Published
-
Francis Bacon: Human Presence – a 'stirring, splendid' exhibition
The Week Recommends 'Riveting' show at the National Portrait Gallery explores the artist's 'wild' portraits
By The Week UK Published
-
Robert McCrum shares his favourite books on sport
The Week Recommends Writer and editor picks works by Nick Hornby, David Goldblatt and others
By The Week UK Published