“Crime and Punishment” and “A Moveable Feast”
The connections to Dostoevsky’s classic Crime and Punishment just keep coming. S, who blogs at Puss Reboots, recently reviewed Hemingway’s Moveable Feast, which I read and very much enjoyed last year. She noted that the book, published posthumously, had been edited by Hemingway’s last wife to an unknown extent. While doing research on that point, I found Crime and Punishment named as an influence by Hemingway on the book. Hemingway’s isn’t an obvious homage, but now I knew what to look for, I found it.
Raskolnikov is a man whose guilt and crime prevent him from accepting the love of Sofya until the very end of the novel. To me, A Moveable Feast felt like a loving apology from Hemingway to his first wife Hadley; before the editing the book included an overt apology. Like Raskolnikov, Hemingway left his love for dark reasons but came to his senses much later, and asked forgiveness. Unlike Raskolnikov, though, Hemingway did not reunite with his earlier love.
November 27th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Interesting post. I hadn’t picked up on the connection between the Hemingway memoir and Crime and Punishment when I read A Moveable Feast. In my defense I last read C & P about 20 years ago so it wasn’t fresh on my mind. Happy reading.