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

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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

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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

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

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c. 95

Gospel of John

Anonymous

Early Christian. Roman Asia Minor. written in Koine Greek.

The fourth canonical gospel, opening with the Logos prologue and including the raising of Lazarus.

What it handed down

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

Direct source, well documented.

In Part Four, Raskolnikov asks Sonya to read him the raising of Lazarus from John 11, and she reads it aloud from a New Testament that once belonged to the murdered Lizaveta. The resurrection of Lazarus becomes the figure for Raskolnikov's own renewal in the epilogue, where the same book lies under his pillow in Siberia.

To Confessions (Confessiones) (c. 397)

Direct source, well documented.

In Book Seven Augustine says the Platonists' books taught him 'In the beginning was the Word' but not 'the Word was made flesh,' quoting John's prologue to mark where philosophy ends and Christianity begins.

Where it came from

Genesis, Anonymous c. 500 BCE (compiled)

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c. 500 BCE (compiled)

Genesis

Anonymous

Persian-period Judah. Judah / Babylonian exile. written in Hebrew.

The first book of the Hebrew Bible: creation, the fall of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, the flood, and the patriarchs.

What it handed down

To Paradise Lost

Direct source, well documented.

Milton's subject is the first three chapters of Genesis: creation, Eden, the temptation, and the expulsion. He expands a few verses into twelve books.

To Gospel of John (c. 95)

Direct source, well documented.

John's prologue opens 'In the beginning,' deliberately repeating the first words of Genesis, and recasts creation as the work of the Word. Light and darkness from Genesis 1 become the gospel's governing images.

To Letter to the Romans

Direct source, well documented.

In Romans 5, Paul traces sin and death into the world through Adam's transgression in Genesis 3. He also builds his argument on faith from Abraham's story in Genesis 15.

Where it came from

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

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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

Gospel of John

What it handed down

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

To Confessions (Confessiones) (c. 397)

Where it came from

Genesis

What it handed down

To Paradise Lost

To Gospel of John (c. 95)

To Letter to the Romans

Where it came from

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