Book description
TRANSLATED BY RICHARD PEVEAR & LARISSA VOLOKHONSKY
A troubled young man commits the perfect crime - the murder of a
vile pawnbroker whom no one will miss. Raskolnikov is desperate for
money, but convinces himself that his motive for the murder is to
benefit mankind. So begins one of the greatest novels ever written, a
journey into the criminal mind, a police thriller, and a philosophical
meditation on morality and redemption.
Fyodor Dostoevsky was born in Moscow on 11th November 1821. He had
six siblings and his mother died in 1837 and his father in 1839. He
graduated from the St Petersburg Academy of Military Engineering in 1846
but decided to change careers and become a writer. His first book,
Poor Folk
, did very well but on 23rd April 1849 he was arrested for subversion
and sentenced to death. After a mock-execution his sentence was commuted
to hard labour in Siberia where he developed epilepsy. He was released
in 1854. His 1860 book,
The House of the Dead
was based on these experiences. In 1857 he married Maria Dmitrievna
Isaeva. After his release he adopted more conservative and traditional
values and rejected his previous socialist position. In the following
years he spent a lot of time abroad, struggled with an addiction to
gambling and fell deeply in debt. His wife died in 1864 and he married
Anna Grigoryeva Snitkina. In the following years he published his most
enduring and successful books, including
Crime and Punishment
(1865). He died on 9th February 1881.
