A good unreliable narration, but far from my favorite of his works. I am reading through every Dostoevsky novel/novella, and as one does with any author they read a lot of, patterns start to emerge.

One pattern in his writing that I don't like, despite being an obvious fan of his, is the Woman Problem. I like to joke that Dostoevsky reminds me that incels existed long before the Internet, and this is another example.

It's not that the portrayal of Katerina is bad, but it's not his first depiction of a woman who is mad yet somehow wise, childlike yet lusted after. If a woman isn't that, then she's often a sex worker he has the main character project his flaws and lack of emotional intelligence on, which is a WHOLE other thing I could write an essay about.

This story gets into agency (or lack thereof), and I don't know if I like the implications of it, but I also think it's up to interpretation. Is he critiquing a women's lack of agency in the time period? One could choose to see it that way, but just knowing his history and his work, it's hard not to see a more nefarious interpretation of gender essentialism :/ 

anyways I'm done yappin!