Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoyevsky s Crime and Punishment (Russian: Prestupleniye i nakazaniye) was published for the first time in 1866. Raskolnikov, a penniless ex-student who believes he is an extraordinary person and can thus take on the spiritual burden of using bad methods to achieve humanitarian aims, is the protagonist of his first work, a psychological examination of which leads him to murder. Raskolnikov s shame over the act becomes overwhelming. This is one of the best stories ever written about the disease of guilt.