Crime and Punishment

About this book

*Crime and Punishment* is a psychological novel about a poor, proud ex-student in St. Petersburg, Raskolnikov, who convinces himself that extraordinary people have the right to commit murder for a greater good, so he kills a despised pawnbroker and her innocent sister—only to be shattered by guilt, paranoia, and inner torment rather than feeling justified. As he spirals emotionally and pushes away everyone who loves him, he is drawn to Sonia, a self-sacrificing young woman forced into prostitution to feed her family, who becomes the voice of his conscience and urges him to confess. The novel follows his cat-and-mouse struggle with the investigator Porfiry, his eventual surrender, his exile to Siberia, and the first stirrings of redemption through suffering and love—making it, at its core, a story about the agony of a guilty conscience and the slow, painful path back to humanity.