Crime and Punishment

Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders through the slums of St. Petersburg and commits a random murder without remorse or regret. He imagines himself to be a great man, a Napoleon: acting for a higher purpose beyond conventional moral law. But as he embarks on a precarious game of cat and mouse with a suspicious police investigator, Raskolnikov is pursued by the growing voice of his own conscience and finds the noose of his own guilt tightening around him. Part detective thriller, part psychological portrait, Crime and Punishment is a novel of breathtaking drama and power.