Novel
Crime and Punishment
Преступление и наказание
Fyodor Dostoevsky · 1866
Opening lines
В начале июля, в чрезвычайно жаркое время, под вечер, один молодой человек вышел из своей каморки, которую нанимал от жильцов в С — м переулке, на улицу и медленно, как бы в нерешимости, отправился к К — ну мосту.
At the beginning of July, during an extremely hot spell, towards evening, a young man came out of the little room he rented from tenants in S. Lane, into the street, and slowly, as if undecided, set off towards K. Bridge.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from ru.wikisource.org
Synopsis
In Saint Petersburg, Rodion Raskolnikov, a former law student reduced to poverty, plans to kill an old moneylender who keeps money and pawned objects in her home. He has persuaded himself that certain extraordinary men have the right to cross forbidden lines in order to accomplish great things, and that this money would set him free. He carries it out; at once confusion, fear and disgust overwhelm him, and his reasonings lose all power in the face of what he has just done.
Context
In the summer of 1865, in Wiesbaden, the author lost all his money at roulette; it was there, penniless, that he began this book, first conceived as a first-person narrative, which he rewrote in the third person in November. The novel appeared in 1866 in twelve instalments in Rousski vestnik, Katkov's review, then in volume form the following year, revised. At the same time, bound by a contract, he dictated another novel in twenty-six days to a stenographer, Anna Snitkina, whom he married in 1867.
Who it is for
A long novel of continuous tension, in which the action takes place mostly in the hero's head; several French translations are in the bookshops.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the first great novel of its author's maturity and often cited among the greatest works of world literature.