Classic
Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Summary
Impoverished student Rodion Raskolnikov murders a pawnbroker in Saint Petersburg to test his theory that extraordinary men stand above the law. Guilt corrodes him from the inside as the detective Porfiry circles and the devout Sonya offers a path to redemption. Dostoevsky turns a crime story into a piercing study of conscience and grace.
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Historical Context & Significance
Dostoevsky wrote the novel under crushing debt after his Siberian exile and published it serially in 1866. It became a foundation stone of modern psychological fiction.