Crime and Punishment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Crime and Punishment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Crime and Punishment (Russian: Преступление и наказание) is a novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, that was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments in 1866,[1] and was later published in a single volume.[2] Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, an impoverished St. Petersburg student who formulates and executes a plan to kill a hated, unscrupulous pawnbroker seemingly for her money, thereby solving his financial problems and at the same time, he argues, ridding the world of evil. Raskolnikov also strives to be an extraordinary being, similar to Napoleon, who can murder without repercussions. Crime and Punishment is considered by many as the first of Dostoevsky's cycle of great novels, which would culminate with his last completed work, The Brothers Karamazov, shortly before his death.