Crime and Punishment

About this book

Rodion Raskolnikov, ex-student living in cramped poverty, convinces himself that certain extraordinary people may transgress ordinary morality for a higher purpose, then puts the theory to a brutal test. What follows is not a whodunit but an excavation of mind and city: fever, paranoia, cat-and-mouse conversation, and unexpected compassion from those he least respects. Dostoyevsky's St. Petersburg is claustrophobic, smoky, and morally charged, populated by drunkards, prostitutes, officials, and family members who love without understanding. Crime and Punishment remains the essential novel of conscience under pressure, a work that asks whether intellect alone can justify harm, and what might redeem a person who discovers it cannot.