Crimă și pedeapsă

Rodion Raskolnikov, a former law student living in a cramped rented room in St. Petersburg, believes that exceptional people have the right to commit crimes for the greater good. To test the idea, he murders Alyona Ivanovna, a pawnbroker, and her sister, then spends the novel coming apart with fever, guilt and suspicion. He meets Sonya, a young woman forced into prostitution to support her family, and is questioned by the shrewd investigator Porfiry Petrovich, who suspects him from the beginning. Dostoevsky uses the murder to examine conscience, poverty and redemption.

Readers who like psychological depth will find a murder story where the question is not who did it but what it does to the doer. It is long, but absorbing.

Deep, inward-looking, contemplative, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

Best for readers like The Wisdom Collector. Which reader are you?