Crime and Punishment

Crime and Punishment, Russian Prestupleniye i nakazaniye, novel by Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, first published in 1866. His first masterpiece, the novel is a psychological analysis of the poor former student Raskolnikov, whose theory that he is an extraordinary person able to take on the spiritual responsibility of using evil means to achieve humanitarian ends leads him to murder. The act produces nightmarish guilt in Raskolnikov. The story is one of the finest studies of the psychopathology of guilt written in any language.

Raskolnikov, a former student, lives in poverty and chaos in St. Petersburg. He decides--through contradictory theories, including utilitarian morality and the belief that extraordinary people have the "right to transgress"--to murder Alyona Ivanovna, an elderly pawnbroker. Alyona's half sister, Lizaveta, arrives while he is rifling through Alyona's possessions, and he kills her too. In the meantime he befriends an alcoholic man, Marmeladov, whose daughter Sonya has been forced into prostitution to support the family. An old friend, Razumikhin, also enters his life, concerned by his aberrant behaviour. In addition, Raskolnikov's sister, Dunya, who has left her job as a governess for Svidrigailov because of his improper advances toward her, arrives in St. Petersburg with their mother. Dunya intends to marry a man named Luzhin in order to improve their financial and social position...

Fyodor Dostoevsky, in full Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky, Dostoyevsky also spelled Dostoevsky, (born November 11 October 30, Old Style], 1821, Moscow, Russia--died February 9 January 28, Old Style], 1881, St. Petersburg), Russian novelist and short-story writer whose psychological penetration into the darkest recesses of the human heart, together with his unsurpassed moments of illumination, had an immense influence on 20th-century fiction.