The lineage of Crime and Punishment (Prestupleniye i nakazaniye)

1866

Crime and Punishment (Prestupleniye i nakazaniye)

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Russian Golden Age. Russia. written in Russian.

Dostoevsky's novel follows Rodion Raskolnikov, a destitute former student in St. Petersburg who murders an old pawnbroker to test his theory that extraordinary men may transgress moral law, and then suffers guilt, pursuit by the investigator Porfiry, and a slow turn toward redemption through Sonya Marmeladova. It joins a French-derived crime-and-ideas plot to Russian Orthodox themes of suffering and resurrection.

Where it came from

Find “Crime and Punishment (Prestupleniye i nakazaniye)” on Amazon

1864

Notes from Underground (Zapiski iz podpolya)

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Russian Golden Age. Russia. written in Russian.

The monologue of a spiteful, hyperconscious retired clerk who attacks rational egoism and recounts his humiliations.

What it handed down

To Crime and Punishment (Prestupleniye i nakazaniye) (1866)

Thematic kinship, well documented.

Written two years earlier, Notes from Underground created the isolated, hyperconscious Petersburg rebel who argues against rational egoism. Raskolnikov inherits that voice and its oscillation between pride and self-abasement, now tested in action rather than talk.

Where it came from

What Is to Be Done? (Chto delat'?), Nikolai Chernyshevsky 1863 follow this thread
Confessions (Les Confessions), Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1782 (written 1765–70)
The Overcoat (Shinel'), Nikolai Gogol 1842 follow this thread
The Robbers (Die Räuber), Friedrich Schiller 1781 follow this thread

Find “Notes from Underground (Zapiski iz podpolya)” on Amazon

1782 (written 1765–70)

Confessions (Les Confessions)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Enlightenment. France / Switzerland. written in French.

Rousseau's autobiography, which claims to show a man entirely as he is, faults included.

What it handed down

To Notes from Underground (Zapiski iz podpolya) (1864)

Direct source, well documented.

The Underground Man frames his notes against Rousseau, citing Heine's claim that Rousseau lied about himself in his Confessions out of vanity. He sets out to do what Rousseau claimed to do, tell the whole truth about himself, and shows how hard that is.

Where it came from

Find “Confessions (Les Confessions)” on Amazon

c. 397

Confessions (Confessiones)

Augustine of Hippo

Late Antiquity. Roman North Africa. written in Latin.

Augustine's prayer-autobiography of his sins, his search through philosophy, and his conversion in a Milan garden.

What it handed down

To Confessions (Les Confessions) (1782 (written 1765–70))

Structural model, probable.

Rousseau's title invokes the genre Augustine founded, a first-person account of a life's errors including a childhood theft. Rousseau secularizes the form, confessing to the reader rather than to God.

Where it came from

Gospel of John, Anonymous c. 95 follow this thread
Letter to the Romans, Paul of Tarsus c. 57 follow this thread
Aeneid (Aeneis), Virgil 19 BCE

Find “Confessions (Confessiones)” on Amazon

19 BCE

Aeneid (Aeneis)

Virgil

Augustan. Augustan Rome. written in Latin.

Epic of the Trojan Aeneas, his love for Dido, his descent to the underworld, and his war to found Rome.

What it handed down

To Paradise Lost

Structural model, well documented.

Milton takes Virgil's epic machinery: invocation, beginning in the middle, a long retrospective narration, and a closing prophecy of future history. Michael's vision of the future in the last books parallels Anchises showing Aeneas Rome's destiny.

To History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae)

Direct source, well documented.

Geoffrey opens with Brutus, great-grandson of Aeneas, who leaves Italy and founds Britain. The book grafts British history onto the end of Virgil's epic, as Rome's founding legend had been grafted onto Troy.

To Confessions (Confessiones) (c. 397)

Direct source, well documented.

Augustine recalls weeping as a schoolboy over Dido's death in Aeneid Book Four while caring nothing for his own soul. Virgil is the literary education he confesses and the model of feeling he rejects.

Where it came from

Odyssey, Homer c. 725 BCE
Iliad, Homer c. 750 BCE follow this thread

Find “Aeneid (Aeneis)” on Amazon

c. 725 BCE

Odyssey

Homer

Archaic Greece. Ionia. written in Ancient Greek.

Epic of Odysseus's ten-year voyage home from Troy.

What it handed down

To Aeneid (Aeneis) (19 BCE)

Structural model, well documented.

The first six books follow the Odyssey's pattern of wandering, a shipwreck, a hero telling his story at a foreign court, and a visit to the dead. Aeneas even passes Polyphemus's island and picks up a sailor Odysseus left behind.

Where it came from

This is one of the oldest surviving works in its tradition; the line ends here.

Find “Odyssey” on Amazon

Crime and Punishment (Prestupleniye i nakazaniye)

Where it came from

Notes from Underground (Zapiski iz podpolya)

What it handed down

To Crime and Punishment (Prestupleniye i nakazaniye) (1866)

Where it came from

Confessions (Les Confessions)

What it handed down

To Notes from Underground (Zapiski iz podpolya) (1864)

Where it came from

Confessions (Confessiones)

What it handed down

To Confessions (Les Confessions) (1782 (written 1765–70))

Where it came from

Aeneid (Aeneis)

What it handed down

To Paradise Lost

To History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae)

To Confessions (Confessiones) (c. 397)

Where it came from

Odyssey

What it handed down

To Aeneid (Aeneis) (19 BCE)

Where it came from

Share this lineage