Quite a lot of the plot depends on Raskolnikov being sickly and fainting at inopportune moments. In modern fiction, this would be considered contrived. It's als

Quite a lot of the plot depends on Raskolnikov being sickly and fainting at inopportune moments. In modern fiction, this would be considered contrived. It's also not just a case of modern expectations being shaped by influential novels from the past because older literature avoids the same problem. I get that it's not really 'the point' and not why people love Crime and Punishment but it is a barrier to appreciating it. I preferred & loved The Brothers Karamazov but it suffers from a similar, more justified problem: critiques on the Russian Orthodox church and prophet worship don't have much relevancy to a modern, western, atheistic audience.