Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky is a classic of Russian and world literature, and, according to UNESCO, one of the most widely read writers in the world. His most famous books include the five-volume series Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1868), The Demons (1872), The Adolescent (1875), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). Fyodor Mikhailovich wrote his major works in great haste, sometimes failing to even reread what he dictated to stenographers in order to meet the publication deadlines of the journals where chapters of his works were published. "It often happened in my literary life that the beginning of a chapter of a novel or story was already at the printer and in typesetting, while the ending was still in my head, but it absolutely had to be written by tomorrow," Dostoevsky admitted. One of the cornerstones of Russian and world literature, included in all school and university curricula, Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment has been adapted for the screen numerous times. It confronts readers with crucial moral and ideological questions—about faith, conscience, sin, and redemption. The refutation of the criminal "idea-passion" of murder, the "ugly dream" that possesses Rodion Raskolnikov in the most "premeditated" and "fantastic" city in the world, constitutes the core content of this complex book, which combines several different genres. Conceived as a "psychological account of a single crime," Dostoevsky's novel presented itself to the reader as a grand artistic and philosophical exploration of human nature, a Christian tragedy about the death and resurrection of the soul. Within the novel's pages, you will discover the motives behind the crime of the poor student Raskolnikov, and experience remorse, deep pangs of conscience, and the moral suffering through which Raskolnikov finds the path to spiritual rebirth. Azbuka Publishing House has released the novel in hardcover.