Book Cover of Crime and Punishment

Crime and Punishment

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

A mysterious crime is being plotted in a tiny garret above a dilapidated apartment building in St Petersburg in Russia. The plotter, Rodion Raskolinikov, is a poor student who has delusions of ridding the world of “worthless vermin” and counter balancing these crimes with good deeds. He commits a murder to test his own theories and prove that crime comes naturally to the human species. Crime and Punishment is a path-breaking novel of ideas that changed the course of novel writing in the 20th century. The intense insights into the workings of the human mind had seldom been attempted by any writer anywhere in the world till then. The author, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, was the son of a hardworking but indigent doctor in Moscow. He was educated in boarding schools and later at a military academy from which he graduated as a military engineer. However, his heart was set on becoming a writer and he left the army to pursue a life devoted to writing. He was also deeply involved in the politics of the time and was sentenced to four years in a prison camp in Siberia for being part of an anarchist group. In Siberia, he underwent an ideological change and reverted to traditional/conservative ideas. Crime and Punishment was published in serial form in a literary journal in 1866 after he returned from Siberia. His father's sudden and brutal killing by serfs on their own estate probably provided the trigger for the ideas expressed in the book. His father was an authoritarian despot, while his mother was a weak and fearful person and many of Dostoyevsky's novels contain images that portray these contradictions.

Book Details

Language

English

Original Language

Russian

Published In

1867

Authors

Fyodor Dostoyevsky image

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, sometimes transliterated as Dostoyevsky, was a Russian novelist, philosopher, short story writer, essayist, and journalist. Dostoevsky's literary works explore human ps...

Books by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Listen/Download Audiobook

Read by:
00:00
Playback Speed 1.0
00:00
  • Select Speed

Related books

Golden Web Cover image

Golden Web by E. Phillips Oppenheim

In the heart of South Africa's gold country, a wealthy mine owner named Stirling Deane finds himself entangled in a web of deception and danger. When...

Späte Rache Cover image

Späte Rache by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

In diesem Roman von Arthur Conan Doyle treffen wir zum ersten Mal auf den genialen Detektiv Sherlock Holmes und seinen treuen Freund Dr. Watson. Die G...

Lodger Cover image

Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes

"The story is about a Jack the Ripper-type murderer known only as "The Avenger" in London, who has been killing young blonde women. Meanwhile, a myste...

House by the Lock Cover image

House by the Lock by Alice Muriel Williamson

The discovery of a body in a creek near the imposing 'House by the Lock' sets Noel Stanton on a quest to unravel a perplexing mystery. He suspects Car...

Letter, A Play in Three Acts Cover image

Letter, A Play in Three Acts by W. Somerset Maugham

Set in colonial Malaya, "The Letter" follows Leslie Crosbie, the wife of a plantation manager. Accused of shooting a man who she claims attempted to a...

Belinda  Cover image

Belinda by Maria Edgeworth

When Belinda was published in 1801, it became both controversial and popular. Controversial because of the inter-racial marriage presented in the nove...

O Primo Bazilio Cover image

O Primo Bazilio by José Maria de Eça de Queirós

Em uma Lisboa do século XIX, onde aparências e segredos moldam vidas, José Maria de Eça de Queirós nos presenteia com "O Primo Basílio". Neste clássic...

The Fortunes of Nigel Cover image

The Fortunes of Nigel by Sir Walter Scott

During the turbulent moment in English history involving King James 1 and 6, Nigel Olifaunt, a Scottish lord, seeks to protect his family home and hol...

Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne Cover image

Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne by Ann Radcliffe

Set in the rugged beauty of the Scottish Highlands, "Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne" delves into a tale of love, betrayal, and the relentless pursuit...

The Man Who Knew Too Much Cover image

The Man Who Knew Too Much by Gilbert K. Chesterton

Robbery, murder and treason. Strange happenings in quiet English villages. A book critic who happens to find a corpse with its head crushed, an Irish...

Reviews for Crime and Punishment

No reviews posted or approved, yet...