Crime and Punishment

One of the most influential works of Russian literature and a classic of world literature, Crime and Punishment follows the great moral dilemmas of one St. Petersburg man who makes a case to justify murder.
Rodion Raskolnikov is impoverished and desperate, and he thinks himself to be above the laws of society. He decides it’s just for him to kill an old woman because, with the money he’ll steal from her, he can go on to perform great deeds. But, of course, his logic falls apart quickly, and guilt comes to swallow him whole. Sharp and suspenseful, this story of Raskolnikov’s dance with a police investigator and redemption by a sex worker is a philosophical novel for the ages. The Encyclopedia Britannica calls it “​​one of the finest studies of the psychopathology of guilt written in any language.” Crime and Punishment remains as relevant to discussions of power and responsibility in the 21st century as it was in the 19th.