Summary

Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov lives in a garret in St. Petersburg. Destitute and feeling cut off from humanity, he considers committing a terrible crime—killing a pawnbroker—to steal her money. After hearing people say that society would be better off without the pawnbroker, he murders her—and her sister, who walks in while Raskolnikov is raiding the pawnbroker's wares. As the novel's psychological drama unfolds, Raskolnikov lives in constant fear of discovery.

Publication

Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky first published this tragic story in serial form in 1866 and as a book in 1867. This unabridged version comes from the 1914 English translation by Constance Garnett.