Crime and Punishment

Crime and Punishment is a novel written by the famous Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, published in 1866. It is this second full-length novel after his return from exile in Siberia and is considered as the first great novel of his mature period of writing. 


Crime and Punishment is about anguish of mind and moral dilemmas of the main character named Rodion Raskolnikov, poor student in St. Petersburg, who developed and executed a plan to kill unprincipled pawnbroker in order to get her cash. He also commits the crime to prove his thesis that there are two groups of people: those who have right to do such thing and those who haven’t. He even compares himself with Napoleon Bonaparte, believing that murder is acceptable for a higher purpose.