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Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (1866)

Language

The story behind the card

Raskolnikov thinks this at the start of Crime and Punishment, which Fyodor Dostoevsky published in instalments in 1866. A poor former law student in St Petersburg, he slips past his landlady on a stifling July evening to rehearse a crime he has been brooding over. He mocks his own fear, then wonders whether he only talks because he does nothing. “A new word” returns later, in his article claiming that extraordinary people may break moral rules; the novel shows what that idea costs him.

Türkçe oku
İnsanlar en çok yeni bir adım atmaktan, yeni bir söz söylemekten korkar.
Fyodor Dostoyevski, Suç ve Ceza (1866)

Bu düşünce, Suç ve Ceza'nın daha ilk sayfalarında Raskolnikov'un aklından geçer. Dostoyevski romanı 1866'da bir dergide tefrika etmişti. Raskolnikov, Petersburg'da yoksulluk içinde yaşayan eski bir hukuk öğrencisidir. Boğucu bir temmuz akşamı ev sahibesine görünmeden sokağa çıkar ve kafasında kurup durduğu bir suçun provasını yapmaya gider. Yolda kendi korkusuyla alay eder; sonra belki de hiçbir şey yapmadığı için gevezelik ettiğini düşünür. “Yeni söz” romanın ilerleyen bölümlerinde yeniden karşımıza çıkar: Raskolnikov bir makalesinde, olağanüstü insanların ahlak kurallarını çiğneyebileceğini savunmuştur. Roman, bu fikrin ona neye mal olduğunu anlatır.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Crime and Punishment
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