Other editions of book Crime and Punishment With Preface

Crime and Punishment (1866) is the story of a murder committed on principle, of a killer who wishes by his action to set himself outside and above society. A novel of great physical and psychological tension, pervaded by Dostoevsky's sinister evocation of St Petersburg, it also has moments of wild humour. Dostoevsky's own harrowing experiences mark the novel. He had himself undergone interrogation and trial, and was condemned to death, a sentence commuted at the last moment to penal servitude. In prison he was particularly impressed by one hardened murderer who seemed to have attained a spiritual equilibrium beyond good and evil: yet witnessing the misery of other convicts also engendered in Dostoevsky a belief in the Christian idea of salvation through suffering.

(This is the english version) Crime and Punishment ( is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. It is the second of Dostoyevsky's full-length novels following his return from ten years of exile in Siberia. Crime and Punishment is the first great novel of his "mature" period of writing. Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in St. Petersburg who formulates and executes a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her cash. Raskolnikov argues that with the pawnbroker's money he can perform good deeds to counterbalance the crime, while ridding the world of a worthless vermin. He also commits this murder to test his own hypothesis that some people are naturally capable of such things, and even have the right to do them. Several times throughout the novel, Raskolnikov justifies his actions by comparing himself with Napoleon Bonaparte, believing that murder is permissible in pursuit of a higher purpose.

Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, first published in 1866. It was written after Dostoevsky's return from five years of exile in Siberia, where he was serving his sentence in camps similar to those of the infamous Soviet Gulag. Crime and Punishment deals with the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikove, a poor ex-student from St. Pertersburg who designs and executes a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her money. Raskolnikov reasons that with the pawnbroker's money he can perform good deeds to counterbalance crime, while ridding the world of a worthless parasite. His actions are a test of his theory that some people are naturally able to and also have the right to murder. Raskolnikov also justifies his actions by mentally associating himself with Napoleon Bonaparte, believing that murder is permissible in pursuit of a higher purpose, only to find out, of course, that he is not Napoleon. This publication of Crime and Punishment is part of the Qualitas Classics Fireside Series, where pure, ageless classics are presented in clean, easy to read reprints. For a complete list of titles, see: http://www.libraryoftheclassics.com