Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s seminal classic, now back in a beautiful hardcover edition designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

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 dangerous game of cat and mouse with a suspicious police investigator, Raskolnikov is pursued by the growing voice of his conscience and finds the noose of his own guilt tightening around his neck. Only Sonya, a downtrodden prostitute, can offer the chance of redemption.

This vivid translation by David McDuff has been acclaimed as the most accessible version of Dostoyevsky’s great novel, rendering its dialogue with a unique force and naturalism. This edition of Crime and Punishment also includes a new chronology of Dostoyevsky’s life and work.

Editorial Reviews

For the past decade, Penguin has been producing handsome hardcover versions of their classics (…) both elegant and quirky in shocks of bright color“
-The New York Times

– From the Publisher