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by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Originally published in twelve monthly installments in the literary journal, The Russian Messenger (1866), the novel was subsequently published and translated for a world audiencel. After ten years of exile in Siberia, this was Dostoevsky's second major novel. The lead character, Rodion Raskolnikov suffers mental anguish and moral dilemma as he plans to kill a pawnbroker to use her cash to perform good deeds. Is murder ever permissible in pursuit of a higher purpose? The novel is often studied in grades 11-12 to explore this moral dilemma and leaders in positions of power who answer it quite differently, not dissimilar from another great Russian work of realist fiction, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy)

Dostoevsky's novel is featured in our guide to Russian Writers.

Translator's Preface

Part I - Chapter I

Part I - Chapter II

Part I - Chapter III

Part I - Chapter IV

Part I - Chapter V

Part I - Chapter VI

Part I - Chapter VII

Part II - Chapter I

Part II - Chapter II

Part II - Chapter III

Part II - Chapter IV

Part II - Chapter V

Part II - Chapter VI

Part - Chapter VII

Part III - Chapter I

Part III - Chapter II

Part III - Chapter III

Part III - Chapter IV

Part III - Chapter V

Part III - Chapter VI

Part IV - Chapter I

Part IV - Chapter II

Part IV - Chapter III

Part IV - Chapter IV

Part IV - Chapter V

Part IV - Chapter VI

Part V - Chapter I

Part V - Chapter II

Part V - Chapter III

Part V - Chapter IV

Part V - Chapter V

Part VI - Chapter I

Part VI - Chapter II

Part VI - Chapter III

Part VI - Chapter IV

Part VI - Chapter V

Part VI - Chapter VI

Part VI - Chapter VII

Part VI - Chapter VIII


Return to the Fyodor Dostoevsky library.