After much thought Rodion Raskolnikov determines that certain special people deserve the right to step outside of normal law and order to accomplish difficult deeds for the good of others and even humanity as a whole. Trapped in desperate poverty, he justifies his plan to rob and kill a rich, unpopular pawnbroker, reasoning that he will take the money, survive and go on to do good things for others. The terrible act of murder, and the unstoppable cascade of events that follow, throw Raskolnikov into a nightmare of mental unbalance and moral torment. One situation after another arises that drives home his guilt and shows how his brutal act has resulted in nothing but destruction and pain. A surprise visit from family and a policeman who seems teasingly, sardonically aware of his guilt thrust Raskolnikov into a position where he can’t tell if even confession will supply meaningful redemption. First published in 1866, Crime and Punishment stands as one of the most acclaimed novels of all time and remains unsurpassed in its penetrating psychology and raw glimpses of a mind wracked by moral confusion and fundamental questions of how to do the right thing.
With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Crime and Punishment is both modern and readable.
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881) was a Russian author and journalist. He spent four years in prison, endured forced military service and was nearly executed for the crime of reading works forbidden by the government. He battled a gambling addiction that once left him a beggar, and he suffered ill health, including epileptic seizures. Despite these challenges, Dostoevsky wrote fiction possessed of groundbreaking, even daring, social and psychological insight and power. Novels like Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov, have won the author acclaim from figures ranging from Franz Kafka to Ernest Hemingway, Friedrich Nietzsche to Virginia Woolf.