Living in squalor, a former student and loner (Raskolnikov) murders an old pawnbroker woman in order to confirm his hypothesis that certain individuals can pretermit morality in the pursuit of something greater.
Crime and Punishment is one of the most highly regarded works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a Russian novelist born in 1821. He was no stranger to the law, having spent four years in a labour camp after being involved in a radical socialist group.
The book is considered to be the world's first psychological thriller. It's a gripping detective story, a fantastic piece of storytelling with a fascinatingly complex central character.
