The Sinner and the Saint
Dostoevsky and the Gentleman Murderer Who Inspired a Masterpiece
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Narrated by:
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Robert Petkoff
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By:
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Kevin Birmingham
About this listen
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * One of The East Hampton Star's 10 Best Books of the Year
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Most Dangerous Book, the true story behind the creation of another masterpiece of world literature, Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.
The Sinner and the Saint is the deeply researched and immersive tale of how Dostoevsky came to write this great murder story - and why it changed the world. As a young man, Dostoevsky was a celebrated writer, but his involvement with the radical politics of his day condemned him to a long Siberian exile. There, he spent years studying the criminals that were his companions. Upon his return to St. Petersburg in the 1860s, he fought his way through gambling addiction, debilitating debt, epilepsy, the deaths of those closest to him, and literary banishment to craft an enduring classic.
The germ of Crime and Punishment came from the sensational story of Pierre François Lacenaire, a notorious murderer who charmed and outraged Paris in the 1830s. Lacenaire was a glamorous egoist who embodied the instincts that lie beneath nihilism, a Western-influenced philosophy inspiring a new generation of Russian revolutionaries. Dostoevsky began creating a Russian incarnation of Lacenaire, a character who could demonstrate the errors of radical politics and ideas. His name would be Raskolnikov.
Lacenaire shaped Raskolnikov in profound ways, but the deeper insight, as Birmingham shows, is that Raskolnikov began to merge with Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky was determined to tell a murder story from the murderer's perspective, but his character couldn't be a monster. No. The murderer would be chilling because he wants so desperately to be good.
The writing consumed Dostoevsky. As his debts and the predatory terms of his contract caught up with him, he hired a stenographer to dictate the final chapters in time. Anna Grigorievna became Dostoevsky's first reader and chief critic and changed the way he wrote forever. By the time Dostoevsky finished his great novel, he had fallen in love.
Dostoevsky's great subject was self-consciousness. Crime and Punishment advanced a revolution in artistic thinking and began the greatest phase of Dostoevsky's career. The Sinner and the Saint now gives us the thrilling and definitive story of that triumph.
©2021 Kevin Birmingham (P)2021 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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"With The Sinner and the Saint, Kevin Birmingham has scored a hat trick, delivering three biographies in one book - expertly chronicling the lives of the man who wrote Crime and Punishment and the murderer who inspired the tale, and the fascinating evolution of the novel itself. Birmingham’s ingenious braided narrative offers an inspired new reading to those who already know and love Dostoevsky’s masterpiece, and serves as an indispensable guide for first time readers.” (Megan Marshall, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Margaret Fuller: A New American Life and Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast)
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When Stalin came into power in 1924, the Communist government began persecuting dissident writers. Though Stalin spared the life of Boris Pasternak - whose novel in progress, Doctor Zhivago, was suspected of being anti-Soviet - he persecuted Boris' mistress, typist, and literary muse, Olga Ivinskaya. Boris' affair with Olga devastated the straitlaced Pasternaks, and they were keen to disavow Olga's role in Boris' writing process.
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A wonderfully enjoyable read
- By gran 80 on 03-15-17
By: Anna Pasternak
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1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows
- A Memoir
- By: Ai Weiwei, Allan H. Barr - translator
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Once a close associate of Mao Zedong and the nation’s most celebrated poet, Ai Weiwei’s father, Ai Qing, was branded a rightist during the Cultural Revolution, and he and his family were banished to a desolate place known as “Little Siberia,” where Ai Qing was sentenced to hard labor cleaning public toilets. Ai Weiwei recounts his childhood in exile, and his difficult decision to leave his family to study art in America, where he befriended Allen Ginsberg and was inspired by Andy Warhol and the artworks of Marcel Duchamp.
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This book changed my life
- By Johnny Nopolis on 08-16-22
By: Ai Weiwei, and others
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Lady Killers
- Deadly Women Throughout History
- By: Tori Telfer
- Narrated by: Jaime Lamchick
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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When you think of serial killers throughout history, the names that come to mind are ones like Jack the Ripper, John Wayne Gacy, and Ted Bundy. But what about Tillie Klimek, Moulay Hassan, Kate Bender? The narrative we’re comfortable with is the one where women are the victims of violent crime, not the perpetrators. In fact, serial killers are thought to be so universally, overwhelmingly male that in 1998, FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood infamously declared in a homicide conference, “There are no female serial killers.”
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An ode to arsenic
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 03-04-24
By: Tori Telfer
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Notes from the Underground (AmazonClassics Edition)
- By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Constance Garnett - translator
- Narrated by: Pete Simonelli
- Length: 4 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Isolated from society in a tenement basement in St. Petersburg, a malicious former civil servant vents his resentments. In the rambling notes that follow, we are exposed to the inner turmoil of the Underground Man, who represents the voice of his generation. An emotional, paranoid knot of contradictions, the spiteful narrator is also desperate to join a society he loathes, if only to prove his superiority to it.
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Amazing
- By Bryan on 02-19-19
By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and others
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The Wall
- By: John Hersey
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 29 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Riveting and compelling, The Wall tells the inspiring story of 40 men and women who escape the dehumanizing horror of the Warsaw ghetto. John Hersey's novel documents the Warsaw ghetto both as an emblem of Nazi persecution and as a personal confrontation with torture, starvation, humiliation, and cruelty - a gripping and visceral story, impossible to pause.
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Fascinating
- By Phil on 06-14-21
By: John Hersey
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The Long Loneliness
- The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist
- By: Dorothy Day
- Narrated by: Nancy Linari
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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When Dorothy Day died in 1980, the New York Times eulogized her as “a nonviolent social radical of luminous personality...founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and leader for more than 50 years in numerous battles of social justice.” Here, in her own words, this remarkable woman tells of her early life as a young journalist in the crucible of Greenwich Village political and literary thought in the 1920s, and of her momentous conversion to Catholicism that meant the end of a Bohemian lifestyle and common-law marriage.
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Required reading for any who work in poverty
- By marguerite allred-crawford on 11-16-20
By: Dorothy Day
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I Am Dynamite!
- A Life of Nietzsche
- By: Sue Prideaux
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Nietzsche wrote that all philosophy is autobiographical, and in this vividly compelling, myth-shattering biography, Sue Prideaux brings listeners into the world of this brilliant, eccentric, and deeply troubled man, illuminating the events and people that shaped his life and work. I Am Dynamite! is the essential biography for anyone seeking to understand history's most misunderstood philosopher.
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Fascinating; tragic
- By Cineaste21 on 12-30-18
By: Sue Prideaux
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Crime and Punishment
- Pevear & Volokhonsky Translation (Vintage Classics)
- By: Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Narrated by: Peter Batchelor
- Length: 25 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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With the same suppleness, energy, and range of voices that won their translation of The Brothers Karamazov the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize, Pevear and Volokhonsky offer a brilliant translation of Dostoevsky's classic novel that presents a clear insight into this astounding psychological thriller. This audio edition of Crime and Punishment is expressively brought to life by Peter Batchelor.
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waited for this translation
- By L. Kerr on 12-22-20
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Darkness at Noon
- By: Arthur Koestler
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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A fictional portrayal of an aging revolutionary, this novel is a powerful commentary on the nightmare politics of the troubled 20th century. Born in Hungary in 1905, a defector from the Communist Party in 1938, and then arrested in both Spain and France for his political views, Arthur Koestler writes from a wealth of personal experience.
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Literature as the ‘living memory’ of nations
- By ESK on 01-23-13
By: Arthur Koestler
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The Good Assassin
- How a Mossad Agent and a Band of Survivors Hunted Down the Butcher of Latvia
- By: Stephan Talty
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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The untold story of an Israeli spy’s epic journey to bring the notorious Butcher of Latvia to justice - a case that altered the fates of all ex-Nazis.
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Wonderful: A complete history wrapped in a story
- By Aaron on 04-22-20
By: Stephan Talty
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Children of Nazis
- The Sons and Daughters of Himmler, Göring, Höss, Mengele, and Others - Living with a Father’s Monstrous Legacy
- By: Tania Crasnianski, Molly Grogan - translator
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1940, the German sons and daughters of infamous Nazi dignitaries Himmler, Göring, Hess, Frank, Bormann, Speer, and Mengele were children of privilege at four, five, or 10 years old, surrounded by affectionate, all-powerful parents. Although innocent and unaware of what was happening at the time, they eventually discovered the extent of their fathers' occupations: These men were leaders of the Third Reich and would later be convicted as monstrous war criminals.
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Fantastic
- By Anonymous User on 12-30-22
By: Tania Crasnianski, and others
What listeners say about The Sinner and the Saint
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jeffrey D
- 06-24-22
Interesting topic (Dostoevsky, that is)
The conceit of this book is that Dostoevsky was inspired, in part, by the career of the French criminal Lacenaire to write his masterpiece, Crime and Punishment (which is to some extent true), and therefore it might be an entertaining and instructive idea to create a book by interleaving the story of Dostoevsky, the book, and Lacenaire. This sort of works. Lacenaire is interesting (there are the distressingly usual women writing passionate letters to this murderer in jail), but not that interesting. And the instalments of Lacenaire's story are a bit distracting and not always clearly relevant. It is Dostoevsky and Crime and Punishment that are truly interesting. Time spent on Lacenaire is perhaps not time well-spent.
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- Windy Man 83
- 01-21-23
Spectacular
Wow. I’ve written more on Dostoevsky on my Substack. But wow. This is a gorgeous, powerful book. The author very clearly values Dostoevsky as the highest of artists. Which he should. I’m currently rereading Crime and Punishment. The Sinner and the Saint truly opens the door to an intimate insider’s look into Dostoevsky’s personal and literary life and struggles. I recently read a biography about Gauguin; this book reminded me of that artist. Do yourself a favor and buy this book. You won’t regret it. It’s written almost like a novel.
Michael Mohr
‘Sincere American Writing’
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-23-22
Best book about F.D.'s amazing journey
This was the most moving & insightful /compassionate/heartbreaking/page turning/great works of non fiction I ever experienced.Did not want it to end.Great narrator also especially.However:If you don't want to know about what it's like to live in mid-19th century St.Petersburg ; a primer on publishers; printers & writers ; censorship edicts ;money lenders & debtors & a dozen types of philosophical ideas that spread across Europe ;plus an absolute masterly description of what ;being a prisoner in Siberia really involved..Be warned;you may not like this book..On the other hand..If you are interested in that kind of history then this is IT.An unforgettable listening pleasure.Top Marks.
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- Paul Tretyak
- 07-27-23
Impeccable
I love Kevin Birmingham style and Robert Petkof did a wonderful job reading as well. Cannot recommend this enough for any literary fans.
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- Sandra Lorentzen
- 01-08-23
Illuminating background
After listening to all of Dostoyevsky’s major works, it was so great to get a context for his writing by learning about his life and times.
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- Buretto
- 04-02-22
Probably need a re-read of C&P for full reaction
But for now, this book left me merely whelmed. One-third contextualization, a third Dostoevsky's travails in writing the book, and a third Cliff's Notes. Perhaps another read will provide a new perspective, but I'm not so sure.
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