Crime and Punishment

***Crime and Punishment***  is a novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was the first great novel of his mature period.

It was first published in the literary journal _The Russian Messenger_ in 12 monthly series in 1866. It was later published in a single volume. It is the second of Dostoevsky's novels, written after he returned from his punishment (exile in Siberia).

## Plot

_Crime and Punishment_ is about the troubles of Rodion Raskolnikov, a young man living in St. Petersburg. He used to be a student, but he became so poor he had to stop studying. He plans to kill a selfish old pawnbroker for her money, and he acts on his plan. Raskolnikov argues that with her money he can do good things, and that he was simply killing a person who was not worth anything. He also murdered her to test his idea that some people are naturally better than others and have the right to murder. Several times in the novel, Raskolnikov justifies himself by comparing himself to Napoleon, saying that murder is allowed for a higher purpose.

However, after he kills the pawnbroker, questions which he cannot answer and feelings he had not expected terrify him. He feels separated from mankind, nature, and truth. Because of this, he decides at last to confess to the police and accept suffering.

## Creation

Dostoevsky began the idea of _Crime and Punishment_ in the summer of 1865. This was after he had gambled away much of his money. Because of this, he could not pay his bills or eat properly. He owed large sums of money to creditors, and was also trying to help the family of his brother Mikhail. Mikhail had died in early 1864. He began writing it under the title _The Drunkards_. He wanted to write about "the current problem of drunkenness". However, when Dostoevsky began writing about Raskolnikov's crime, the theme of crime and punishment became his main subject instead.

Dostoevsky offered his story to the publisher Mikhail Katkov. At the time, he did not think of _Crime and Punishment_ as a novel. Famous writers such as Ivan Turgenev and Leo Tolstoy often used Katkov's monthly journal, _The Russian Messenger_, to print their writings. Dostoevsky, though, had argued with Katkov in the early 1860s, and had never printed anything in the journal. Finally, Dostoevsky asked Katkov for help when others would not print his book. In September 1865, Dostoevsky wrote a letter to Katkov. In the letter, he explained to him that _Crime and Punishment_ was going to be about a young man who believes in "certain strange, 'unfinished' ideas, yes floating in the air". He also said that he wanted to study the moral and psychological dangers of "radical" ideas. In letters written in November 1865 an important change had happened: the "story" has become a "novel", From then on, Dostoevsky always spoke of _Crime and Punishment_ as a novel.

Dostoevsky had to write very quickly to finish both _The Gambler_ and _Crime and Punishment_. Anna Snitkina, a stenographer whom he later married, helped him very much. The first part of _Crime and Punishment_ appeared in January 1866 in _The Russian Messenger_. The last part was published in December 1866.

|style="text-align: left; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight:bold; padding:0px 5px; vertical-align: top; font-size: large; color: gray;"|“|At the end of November much had been written and was ready; I burned it all; I can confess that now. I didn't like it myself. A new form, a new plan excited me, and I started all over again.|style="text-align: left; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight:bold; padding:0px 5px; vertical-align: bottom; font-size: large; color: gray"|”|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|colspan=3 style="text-align: center;"|— Dostoevsky's letter to his friend Alexander Wrangel in February 1886||||
When Dostoevsky's complete writings were published in the Soviet Union, the editors put together the notebooks that Dostoevsky kept while he was working on _Crime and Punishment_ and printed it. They printed the notebooks in the same order as the book was written. Through their efforts, there is now a small part of how Dostoevsky first imagined _Crime and Punishment_ to be written. There are also two other versions of the story. They are called the Wiesbaden edition, the Petersburg edition, and the final (last) plan. A part of a change in the story was that instead of the story being told by a character inside it, it was written as if many uninvolved people were writing it (this was a form of writing that Dostoevsky made up). The Wiesbaden edition is mostly about the reaction of the writer to his murder. It is quite similar to the story that Dostoevsky described in his letter to Katkov, and was written like a diary or journal. It had the same story as what later became part II.

## Summary

Raskolnikov is a mentally insecure student who has stopped going to university. He lives in a very small, rented room in Saint Petersburg. He does not let anyone help him, not even his friend Razumihin. He plans to kill and steal money from an old pawnbroker and moneylender, Alyona Ivanovna, but it is not clear why he wants to kill her yet. While he is thinking about this plan, Raskolnikov meets Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov, a sad drunkard who recently spent all of his poor family's money on drinking. He also gets a letter from his mother. His mother says that she will soon visit St. Petersburg. She writes about his sister's sudden engagement with a rich man named Pyotr Petrovitch Luzhin, who according to Raskolnikov's interpretation of his mother's letter, is a man that wishes to marry Dounia (Raskolnikov's sister) for the reason that he is to be her beneficiary. This particular fact (despite that his mother only cares little for such fact) particularly troubles Raskolnikov as he thinks her sister is selling herself for wealth, and correlates this story to Sonia (Marmeladov's daughter), decision to go into prostitution for their family's lack of money.

After thinking, Raskolnikov goes to Alyona Ivanovna's apartment. There, he murders her with an axe. Her quiet half-sister, Lizaveta, comes inside. Surprised, Raskolnikov quickly kills her, too (which directly betrays his previous theory that he is killing for a greater purpose, since Lizaveta is an innocent girl abused by her older sister, Aloyna Ivanovna) Frightened by what he has done, he leaves most of Alyona Ivanovna's wealth behind, only stealing a few things and a small purse, a fact that later becomes a point of suspicion of the murderer's inexperience between his friend Razumihin and his doctor Zossimov. After the deed, two of the pawnbroker's clients (Koch and Pestryakov) tried to knock when Raskolnikov was still present in the apartment. Pestryakov left the apartment telling Koch to stay, but Koch did not oblige, and instead left the apartment as well, leading Raskolnikov to have an escape which relied on fortune alone, a hint at his inexperience in crime.

After his murder, Raskolnikov is filled with worry. He hides the things he stole under a rock and tries to clean away the blood from his clothes. After a short visit to his friend Razumihin, he becomes sick with a fever and seems to wish to betray himself. Whenever anyone speaks of the murder of the pawnbroker, he acts strangely.

## Related pages

- The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time

## References

- Peace, Richard.  "Introduction". Peace, 1–16.
    - Fanger, Donald. "Apogee: Crime and Punishment". Peace, 17–35.
    - Lindenmeyr, Adele. "Raskolnikov's City and the Napoleonic Plan". Peace, 37–49.
    - Wasiolek, Edward. "Raskolnikov's City and the Napoleonic Plan". Peace, 51–74.
    - Peace, Richard.  "Motive and Symbol". Peace, 75–101.

## Other websites

**Criticism**
- SparkNotes study guide
- Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Jessica Bomarito and Russel Whitaker. Gale.
- University of Minnesota study guide
- Text and Analysis at Bibliomania

**Online text**
- A search engine for the novel's text
- Full text, translated by Constance Garnett
- Dual Language E-Book - Crime and Punishment English and Russian texts side-by-side (incomplete).
- Full text in the original Russian
- Complete Book Summary of _Crime and Punishment_ .

## Infobox (book)

- **name**: Crime and Punishment
- **title orig**: Преступление и наказание
- **image**: Cover of the first edition of Crime and Punishment.jpg
- **image caption**: 1st edition title page
- **author**: Fyodor Dostoevsky
- **language**: Russian language, Russian
- **genre**: suspense, literary novel
- **publisher**: The Russian Messenger (series)
- **release date**: 1866
- **media type**: Print (Hardback & Paperback) & Audio book
- **isbn**: 0-679-73450-3
- **dewey**: 891.73/3 20
- **congress**: PG3326 .P7 1993
- **oclc**: 26399697