Primary sourceBook1866

Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoyevsky · 1866

Dostoevsky's novel about Raskolnikov, a poor former student who murders a pawnbroker and is crushed by guilt and paranoia.

His best-known novel, written during his mature period, exploring the theory he wanted to test through fiction.

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Title page of the 1867 Russian edition of Crime and Punishment, volume 1, on tan paper with ornate black borders. Large Cyrillic title reads Преступление и наказание, with Роман, Ф. М. Достоевского, Издание исправленное, Том I, and Петербург, published by A. Bazunov, E. Prats and Ya. Veidenshtraukh, 1867. — Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, title page of 1867 Russian edition.

About this source

What it is

Crime and Punishment is a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, serialised in the journal The Russian Messenger during 1866 before appearing as a single volume. It follows Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished former law student in St Petersburg who murders a pawnbroker, convinced that an 'extraordinary' man may break moral rules for a higher purpose.

Why it matters

Written after Dostoevsky's own years of debt and hardship, the novel is considered the start of his mature period and one of the great works of world literature. It tests the dangerous idea that some people stand above ordinary morality, and shows the psychological cost of acting on it.

Look closer

Why might a serialised novel, published chapter by chapter, be written differently from one finished before publication?
What does Raskolnikov's reaction after the murder suggest about Dostoevsky's view of moral theories?
How does the title page's language and ornamentation tell you about its original readers?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Fyodor Dostoevsky on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.