A dark and compelling study of a young intellectual tempted towards crime through severe penury.

 Crime and Punishment both haunts and disturbs, yet, as the critic John Jones wrote, it is"the most accessible and exciting novel in the world".

 Raskolnikov, a former student who is morbidly self-obsessed,murders an old woman money-lender with a borrowed hatchet in a desperate attempt to free himself from poverty. From the opening pages Dostoyevsky attaches us unflinchingly to his intense and mysterious anti-hero, creating a web of intimacy and tension which is increasingly claustrophobic. Crime and guilt - its traumatic and inevitable successor - are the central themes running through the novel and the notions of "justifiable"murder and worldly retribution are depicted with a deft and razor-sharp precision.

PART I

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

PART II

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

PART III

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

PART IV

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

PART V

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

PART VI

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

EPILOGUE

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II