FROM THE PUBLISHER

Crime and Punishment is the story of a brutal double murder and its aftermath. An impoverished ex-student, Raskolnikov, kills a an old pawn broker and her sister, apparently for financial gain. But as he encounters friends and family, strangers and adversaries, Raskolnikov is compelled to face the true forces that have led him to murder. His struggle with himself and those around him becomes a battle of the individual against society, radicalism against tradition, and ultimately the will of man against the mysteries of divine providence. Crime and Punishment is a compelling and rewarding novel, full of meaning and symbolism that have invited analysis and controversy for nearly a century and a half. It was a sensation in its day, and its themes, methods, and characterization have left an indelible stamp on world literature.

Fyodor Dostoevsky was born in Moscow in 1821. Between 1838 and 1843 he studied at the St. Petersburg Engineering Academy. His first work of fiction was the epistolary novel Poor Folk (1846), which met with a generally favorable response. However, his immediately subsequent works were less enthusiastically received. In 1849 Dostoevsky was arrested as a member of the socialist Petrashevsky circle, and subjected to a mock execution. He suffered four years in a Siberian penal settlement and then another four years of enforced military service. He returned to writing in the late 1850s and traveled abroad in the 1860s. It was during the last twenty years of his life that he wrote the iconic works, such as Notes from the Underground(1864), Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1868) and The Brothers Karamazoo (1880), which were to form the basis of his formidable reputation. He died in 1881.

SYNOPSIS