Crime and Punishment

Complete and unabridged, and including a timeline of the life and times of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, this elegantly designed, jacketed hardcover edition of Crime and Punishment is an essential collectible. Young law student Rodion Raskolnikov lives in poverty in St. Petersburg. In desperation, he sells the last of his valuables, a watch, to an elderly pawnbroker. But what the pawnbroker doesn’t know is that Raskolnikov is rehearsing the crime he has resolved to commit: to rob and murder her. Though the robbery will service his own needs—and that of his family who has sacrificed for him to study—Raskolnikov feels he is righting a wrong committed by the old woman, whom he feels preys on the poor and desolate. When interrupted by the pawnbroker’s sister, he kills her too. Though he felt justified in killing the pawnbroker, the murder of the sister unravels his rational reasoning, and from there we witness the unraveling of the human psyche. While Raskolnikov worries about being caught, he is consumed with his own emotional turmoil about his desire to confess to relieve himself of his guilt. First serialized in 1866, Crime and Punishment has become one of the best-known works of Russian literature. Essential volumes for the shelves of every classic literature lover, the Chartwell Classics series includes beautifully presented works and collections from some of the most important authors in literary history. Chartwell Classics are the editions of choice for the most discerning literature buffs. Other titles in the Chartwell Classics Series include: The Essential Tales & Poems of Edgar Allen Poe; The Essential Tales of H.P. Lovecraft; The Federalist Papers; The Inferno; The Call of the Wild and White Fang; Moby Dick; The Odyssey; Pride and Prejudice; Grimm’s Fairy Tales; Emma; The Great Gatsby; The Secret Garden; Anne of Green Gables; The Phantom of the Opera; The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital; The Republic; Frankenstein; Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; The Picture of Dorian Gray; Meditations; Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass; A Tales of Two Cities; Beowulf; The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Little Women; Wuthering Heights; Peter Pan; Persuasion; Aesop’s Fables; The Constitution of the United States and Selected Writings; The Alchemist; Dracula; Great Expectations; The Iliad; Irish and Fairy Folk Tales; The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; The War of the Worlds; and The Time Machine and The Invisible Man.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was born in Moscow. After spending four years in a Siberian prison for alleged antigovernment activities linked to a radical intellectual circle—an experience that would inform his later novels and short stories—he began publishing a literary monthly. Thereafter, he and his wife lived abroad for several years before returning to Russia, where Dostoevsky went on to become one of the most beloved and celebrated Russian novelists, essayists, and journalists.  

Contents Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Epilogue The Life and Times of Fyodor Dostoevsky Further Reading