This book is awesome. Not only do you learn a bunch about Russia and the Nihilists, Petrashevsky Circle etc. but the book is extremely well written. The parts about the french criminal are very enlightening also. I learned a lot about Dostoevsky and in some ways his life seemed familiar as i have read most of his books and his life was definitely mined for material. Just a joy to read no problem being enthralled the whole time. I would read fiction written by this guy. ( )

I was really intrigued by the premise of this book, and I feel Birmingham did a great job of bringing Dostoevsky's Russia to life. My one quibble knocking off a star? There is actually very very little about the "Gentleman Murderer" in here. I would say 75-80% of the book follows Dostoevsky, which makes the chapters that do look at Lacenaire feel a bit out of place. I think I would have preferred a straight biography of Dostoevsky. ( )

Crime and Punishment is a murder mystery, though the mystery isn’t who killed the pawnbroker and her sister. The mystery is why. from The Sinner and the Saint by Kevin Birmingham

I was intrigued by the idea of The Sinner and the Saint, this biography/literary criticism/history/true crime book, and found it enjoyable and rewarding reading.

As a biography of Dostoyevsky, I was astonished by his life. He was plagued by poverty and ill health and epilepsy, and cheated by his publishers. He became involved with radical thinkers. He was arrested by the tsar for treason, nearly executed, and sent to Siberia where he studied criminals up close, eliciting them to share their grisly stories. The description of life in Siberia is very affecting. Russia had no prisons, and convict labor in Siberian mines fueled massive wealth.

After four years in prison, Dostoyevsky was required to serve in the Army. He and his brother then tried to run magazines, which failed. He tried gambling in a desperate bid for solvency. The tsar kept tight control with censorship of newspapers, magazines, and books, and yet Dostoyevsky wrote some of the greatest novels ever written.

Russia was in turmoil, reform movements and radicalism spurring the tsar to authoritarianism. One philosophy was to believe in nothing–nilhism. When a man who tried to assassinate the tsar was asked by the tsar what he wanted, he replied “nothing.”

The French murderer Lacenaire, unapologetic and enjoying his notoriety, inspired Dostoyevsky’s character of Raskolnikov. Lacenaire’s wealthy family lost their fortune. He was expelled from schools and hated his jobs, and took up gambling while trying to write. He adopted a philosophy of egoism and decided to become an outlaw. He had no remorse for the murders he committed and met his execution with impersonal interest.

The murderer fascinated Dostoyevsky. He decided to write a murder story from the viewpoint of the murderer. A man who kills for no reason, for nothing. He would not be a monster, he would be someone we could understand.

I enjoyed the book on many levels: learning about Russia under the tsar and the philosophical and political ideas that arose in 19th c Russia; as a biography of Dostoyevsky; for its discussion of Russian literature; and as a vehicle to understand Dostoyevsky’s masterpiece, Crime and Punishment.

I received a free egalley from the publisher though NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased. ( )