Opening Passage

From Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The novel opens with Raskolnikov leaving his tiny garret in St. Petersburg in a state of nervous indecision, immediately establishing the suffocating atmosphere and his psychological isolation.
Part 1, Chapter 1

The famous opening sentence: 'On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. bridge.' Sets the oppressive heat, the abbreviated place names, and Raskolnikov's hesitant psychology.

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