Crime and Punishment

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Rodion Raskolnikov, a former student living in poverty in St. Petersburg, convinces himself that an extraordinary man may step over ordinary morality, and murders an old pawnbroker to prove it. The crime takes a few pages; the novel is about what follows. Raskolnikov's theory collapses under fever, guilt and the patient attention of the examining magistrate Porfiry Petrovich, while the people around him, his sister Dunya, his friend Razumikhin, the drunkard Marmeladov and his daughter Sonya, pull him in opposite directions. First published in 1866, the book combines a psychological study with a plot that moves like a thriller. This edition uses Constance Garnett's translation, which introduced Dostoyevsky to many English-language readers in the early twentieth century. Read it online in your browser on Vinteuil; the first chapter is free.