Crime and Punishment

Young law student Rodion Raskolnikov lives in poverty in St. Petersburg. Indesperation, he sells the last of his valuables, a watch, to an elderly pawnbroker. Butwhat the pawnbroker doesn't know is that Raskolnikov is rehearsing the crime he hasresolved to commit: to rob and murder her. Though the robbery will service his ownneeds-and that of his family who has sacrificed for him to study-Raskolnikov feels heis righting a wrong committed by the old woman, whom he feels preys on the poor anddesolate. When interrupted by the pawnbroker's sister, he kills her too. Though he feltjustified in killing the pawnbroker, the murder of the sister unravels his rationalreasoning, and from there we witness the unravellingof the human psyche. WhileRaskolnikov worries about being caught, he is consumed with his own emotionalturmoil about his desire to confess to relieve himself of his guilt. First serialized in1866, Crime and Punishment has become one of the best-known works of Russianliterature. Complete and unabridged, and including a new timeline of the life and times of FyodorDostoyevsky, this elegantly designed, jacketed hardcover edition of Crime andPunishment is an essential collectible.