Crime and Punishment - Softcover

Crime and Punishment is the story of a murder and its consequences, a tale of suspense without equal. On a more profound level, it is an unsurpassed study of pride and rebellion, guilt and redemption, far-reaching in its implications. Its setting is a Russia in the midst of troubled transition to the modern age; its driven young hero, Raskolnikov, stands as a timeless prototype of alienated youth; its unforgettable gallery of characters - ranging from police inspector to prostitute, from incorrigible sinner to unbearable prig - comes to vivid being in an atmosphere of life charged with living, in a world where thought and action are fused by intense emotion. Here, in a brilliant translation by the noted scholar and literary critic Sidney Monas, is one of the greatest novels ever written. Crime and Punishment is the supreme expression of an author who "explored pathological states and the psychology of high tension, the realm of `obsession' and 'possession,' because it was there one could most clearly and dramatically see the human consequences of an idea carried ruthlessly through to its logical conclusion.. . . For Dostoyevsky, an idea always has skin around it, and a human personality."