
Crime & Punishment is one of the greatest & most readable novels ever written. From the beginning we are locked into the frenzied consciousness of Raskolnikov who, against his better instincts, is inexorably drawn to commit a brutal double murder. From that moment on, we share his conflicting feelings of self-loathing & pride, of contempt for & need of others, & of terrible despair & hope of redemption: &, in a remarkable transformation of the detective novel, we follow his agonised efforts to probe & confront both his own motives for, & the consequences of, his crime. The result is a tragic novel built out of a series of supremely dramatic scenes that illuminate the eternal conflicts at the heart of human existence: most especially our desire for self-expression & self-fulfilment, as against the constraints of morality & human laws; & our agonised awareness of the world's harsh injustices & of our own mortality, as against the mysteries of divine justice & immortality.