Crime and Punishment

Dostoyevsky’s novel of Raskolnikov, a destitute former student in St Petersburg who kills an old pawnbroker to prove to himself that an extraordinary man may step over the law, and is then hounded by fever, guilt and a shrewd examining magistrate.

Start reading41 chapters, about 204,000 words

Famous quotes

• All is in a man’s hands and he lets it all slip from cowardice, that’s an axiom. It would be interesting to know what it is men are most afraid of. Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what they fear most.

  In context

  • Courage
  • Fear

• Man grows used to everything, the scoundrel!

  Part I, Chapter IIIn context

  • Change
  • Character

• Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be!… How true it is! Good God, how true! Man is a vile creature!… And vile is he who calls him vile for that

  Part II, Chapter VIIn context

  • Life & Death

• Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth

  Part III, Chapter VIn context

  • Emotion
  • Intelligence

• The more cunning a man is, the less he suspects that he will be caught in a simple thing. The more cunning a man is, the simpler the trap he must be caught in.

  Part III, Chapter VIIn context

  • Intelligence

• Nothing in the world is harder than speaking the truth and nothing easier than flattery.

  Part VI, Chapter IVIn context

  • Truth & Lies

• But that is the beginning of a new story⁠—the story of the gradual renewal of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration, of his passing from one world into another, of his initiation into a new unknown life. That might be the subject of a new story, but our present story is ended.

  Epilogue, Chapter IIIn context

  • Change

Contents

Part I

1. Chapter I
2. Chapter II
3. Chapter III
4. Chapter IV
5. Chapter V
6. Chapter VI
7. Chapter VII

Part II

1. Chapter I
2. Chapter II
3. Chapter III
4. Chapter IV
5. Chapter V
6. Chapter VI
7. Chapter VII

Part III

1. Chapter I
2. Chapter II
3. Chapter III
4. Chapter IV
5. Chapter V
6. Chapter VI

Part IV

1. Chapter I
2. Chapter II
3. Chapter III
4. Chapter IV
5. Chapter V
6. Chapter VI

Part V

1. Chapter I
2. Chapter II
3. Chapter III
4. Chapter IV
5. Chapter V

Part VI

1. Chapter I
2. Chapter II
3. Chapter III
4. Chapter IV
5. Chapter V
6. Chapter VI
7. Chapter VII
8. Chapter VIII

Epilogue

1. Chapter I
2. Chapter II