His theoretical justifications lose all their power as he struggles with guilt and horror and confronts both the internal and external consequences of his deed.Īt the time Dostoevsky owed large sums of money to creditors and was trying to help the family of his brother Mikhail, who had died in early 1864. Once the deed is done, however, he finds himself racked with confusion, paranoia, and disgust. He theorises that with the money he could liberate himself from poverty and go on to perform great deeds, and seeks to convince himself that certain crimes are justifiable if they are committed in order to remove obstacles to the higher goals of 'extraordinary' men. Ĭrime and Punishment follows the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in Saint Petersburg who plans to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker, an old woman who stores money and valuable objects in her flat. The novel is often cited as one of the supreme achievements in world literature. Crime and Punishment is considered the first great novel of his mature period of writing.

It is the second of Dostoevsky's full-length novels following his return from ten years of exile in Siberia. It was later published in a single volume. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. Prestupléniye i nakazániye, IPA: ) is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky.

In the excerpt above, he's beginning to share his story-and we can tell from the moment he opens his mouth that this is one complicated guy.Crime and Punishment ( pre-reform Russian: Преступленіе и наказаніе post-reform Russian: Преступление и наказание, tr.

The narrator of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel, Notes from Underground, is one twisted dude. I was rude and took pleasure in being so. I used to be in the government service, but am no longer. I have been going on like that for a long time-twenty years. But still, if I don't consult a doctor it is from spite. Of course, I can't explain who it is I am mortifying in this case by my spite: I know better than anyone that by all this I am only injuring myself and no one else. No, I refuse to consult a doctor from spite. Besides, I am extremely superstitious, sufficiently so to respect medicine, anyway (I am well-educated enough not to be superstitious, but I am superstitious). I don't consult a doctor for it, and never have, though I have respect for medicine and doctors. However, I know nothing at all about my disease, and do not know for certain what ails me.

Dostoevsky notes