1. Citations from Crime and Punishment are from volume 6 of Dostoevskii, F. M., Polnoe sobranie sochinenii (Leningrad, 1972-)Google Scholar and the Coulson translation, edited by George Gibian (New York: Norton, 1964). References are given in the text in parentheses as PSS and C followed by the pagenumbers.

2. The relationship between Raskol'nikov, Porfirii Petrovich, and Svidrigailov is emphasizedstructurally by the fact that Raskol'nikov has three substantial conversations with each of the othermen.

3. Hingley, Ronald, The UndiscoveredDostoevsky (London, 1962), pp. 97 and 93Google Scholar.

4. Ibid., p. 92.

5. Even the name Svidrigailov is ambiguous and unclear in its significance. There have beenseveral elaborate attempts to make sense of this Russianized Lithuanian surname (cf. Richard Peace, Dostoevsky: An Examination of the Major Novels [Cambridge, 1971], p. 45 and p. 315nGoogle Scholar, as well as Passage, Charles E., Character Names in Dostoevsky's Fiction [Ann Arbor, 1982], pp. 61–62)Google Scholar, butSidney Monas is probably right when he says that “[Svidrigailov's] name does not yield to allegoricalinterpretation, although it suggests Polish-Lithuanian ancestry, like‘Dostoevsky, ’ and might hint atsome hidden identification” (p. 539 of Monas's translation of Crime and Punishment [New York: Signet, 1968]). The Soviet editors of Dostoevskii's works note (PSS, 7: 367–368) that the name appears insome articles published in The Contemporary in 1861 and that the character is mischievous and fromthe provinces.

6. Perhaps Svidrigailov's ironic vision of life keeps him youthful. The mask image as it relates toNikolai Stavrogin in Dostoevskii's novel The Devils is discussed by Joseph Frank in his essay “TheMasks of Stavrogin,” The Sewanee Review (Autumn 1969), pp. 660–691.

7. As is usual in Dostoevskian scandals facts are unimportant; the event is the thing. WhenMarfa Petrovna finally learns from a certain letter that Dunia is completely innocent (“Mr.Svidrigailov had a change of heart and repented” [PSS 29; C 31]) she loses no time in going publicwith the news. Mrs. Raskol'nikov reports (PSS 30; C 31–32) that she wentto every house in the town and everywhere …; she showed everybody Dunia's letter to Mr.Svidrigailov, read it aloud, and even allowed people to copy it (which seems to me to begoing too far). She spent several days in going the rounds in this way, and some peoplebegan to complain that preference had been shown to others, and so turns were arranged, so that people were already waiting for her in each house, and everybody knew that onsuch-and-such a day she would be in such-and-such a place to read the letter. To everyreading people came who had already heard both in their own homes and in other people's as well.By one turn of the cards Dunia's position in society changes from public condemnation to universalrespect.

8. “My information is exact … [Svidrigailov] is the most depraved, the most completely abandonedto vice, even of people of his own kind… . Such, if you wish to know, is the sort of man heis” (PSS 227–228; C 285–286).

9. Mrs. Raskol'nikov is an interesting example of Dostoevskii's portraits of middle-aged nervousprovincial women. She for instance has “presentments” that make her afraid that her son will fall intoa well in St. Petersburg and drown like a certain Lieutenant Potanchikov whom she heard about inthe provinces (PSS 173; C 216) or that she and Dunia will be crushed by a pianoforte being moved inthe street as they are walking along (PSS 185; C 231).

10. Svidrigailov also admits to having been visited by the ghost of Filip, a servant of his whodied under mysterious circumstances some years before (PSS 220; C 276). Luzhin is eager to implicateSvidrigailov in the man's death and insists that Filip “died of brutal ill-treatment,” “driven, or ratherpersuaded, to his violent end by the ceaseless systematic persecution and punishment of Mr.Svidrigailov” (PSS 228; C 286). Curiously, Dunia quickly comes to Svidrigailov's defense in this case: “I only heard a very strange story about this Filip's being some sort of hypochondriac, a kind ofhome-grown philosopher, who, the servants said, ‘read himself silly, ’ and about his having hangedhimself more because of the mockery than because of the beatings of Mr. Svidrigailov” (PSS 228–229;C 286–287). Again, accusations against Svidrigailov remain vague and unconfirmed.

11. This and other trivial babble are reminiscent of the Gogolian narrator in Gogol “s humorousstories, maybe of the fatuity of Khlestakov.

12. What a nice foil to Raskol'nikov's totally serious preoccupation with ideas that Svidrigailov's schemes are totally superficial.

13. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, part 1, chapter 29. “I am not concerned with so-called‘sex’ at all.Anybody can imagine those elements of animality. A greater endeavor lures me on: to fix once for allthe perilous magic of nymphets. “

14. Fanger, Donald, Dostoevsky and Romantic Realism: A Study of Dostoevsky in Relation to Balzac, Dickens, and Gogol (Cambridge, Mass., 1967), p. 233Google Scholar.

15. Payne, Robert, Dostoevsky: A Human Portrait (New York, 1961), p. 1961 Google Scholar.

16. Jones, John, Dostoevsky (Oxford, 1983), p. 222 Google Scholar.

17. Nuttal, A. D., Dostoevsky's “Crime and Punishment “: Murder as Philosophic Experiment (Brighton, 1978), p. 128 Google Scholar.

18. Steinberg, A. Z., “Dostoevskii i evreistvo,” Versty [Paris], no. 3 (1928), pp. 104–105Google Scholar. Translatedand quoted by Goldstein, David I., Dostoevsky and the Jews (Austin, Texas, 1981), p. 53Google Scholar.

19. Smiling and laughing are characteristic gestures for Svidrigailov. For instance, he smilessixteen times and laughs eighteen times during the novel. Both Svidrigailov's smiles and laughs arealmost always qualified grammatically. The smiles are described as “strange,” “vague,” “mocking,” “malicious,” “condescending “; while he is shown laughing “candidly,” “heartily,” “shortly,” “uproariously,” and “loudly.” Contrary to Bergson's claim that “true” laughter is laughter of a group, implyinga complicity with other laughers, Svidrigailov's laughter, though hearty and spontaneous, is privateand never shared with or by those around him.

20. This term was coined and used by Richard Poirier in his indispensably original study, The Performing Self (New York, 1971). Characters in this performing self mode have, according to Poirier's theory, three common aspects in their social behavior and in their perceptions of themselves as socialbeings. First, they treat any occasion as a scene or a stage to dramatize the self as performer. Second, their participation in social situations is superficial and only on the level of rendition rather thancommitment or understanding; it is performance that matters—pacing, tone, juxtapositions. Finally, their performance becomes a curious exercise of power, as Poirier puts it, “curious because it is firstso furiously self-consultive, so even narcissistic, and later so eager for publicity, love, and historicaldimension” (p. 87).

21. At this point Dunia suddenly drops the formal, polite you pronoun and addresses Svidrigailovin the familiar thou form.

22. Simons, Ernest J., Dostoevsky: The Making of a Novelist (London, 1940), p. 181 Google Scholar.

23. Ivanov, Vyacheslav, Freedom and the Tragic Life: A Study in Dostoevsky (New York, 1952), p. 1952 Google Scholar.

24. Svidrigailov offers 10, 000 rubles to Dunia (PSS 223; C 279); he pays Mrs. Marmeladov's funeral expenses, makes arrangements for the Marmeladov orphans, and settles a substantial amounton each of them, as well as on Sonia (PSS 334; C 418). As mentioned above, his sixteen-year-oldbetrothed gets a “trifling present” worth 15, 000 rubles (PSS 386; C 482).