Crime and Punishment

Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished former student in St. Petersburg, convinces himself that a great man is above ordinary morality and murders a pawnbroker to test the theory. What follows is not the story of a crime solved by others, but a mind unraveling under its own guilt, as Raskolnikov is drawn toward confession, redemption, and the possibility of grace by the suffering and faith of those around him. Dostoevsky's landmark novel of conscience and psychological torment remains one of literature's most searching portraits of guilt.