23 h 13 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 570 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 570 pagesAbout this book
What if you can justify a murder to yourself, but cannot live with what follows?
In the stifling heat of St. Petersburg, Rodion Raskolnikov hides from his landlady and broods in a cramped room. The penniless former law student believes extraordinary people can stand above the moral law. He kills a pawnbroker to test that idea. Instead of freedom, he finds fever, suspicion, and a mind that gives him no rest.
In Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the question is not simply who commits the crime, but how he bears it. Investigator Porfiry Petrovich studies Raskolnikov’s nerves with patient interest. His loyal friend Razumikhin tries to care for him, while Sonya Marmeladova offers compassion and faith. Around them, poverty presses on whole families, and arguments about right and wrong become painfully personal.
What you’ll discover
- A mind under siege Stay close to Raskolnikov’s thoughts as pride gives way to dread, nightmares, and sudden rage.
- A city that closes in Enter cramped rooms, cheap taverns, and dirty stairwells where heat and hunger sharpen every encounter.
- A patient battle of nerves Watch Porfiry probe a suspect’s mind through easy chatter rather than simple proofs.
- Compassion amid the wreckage Meet Sonya and Razumikhin, whose care stands against Raskolnikov’s growing distance from other people.
- Ideas with human costs Weigh justice, forgiveness, and the possibility of redemption through lives strained by poverty and guilt.
Is it for you?
This book suits readers who like stories about conscience, big arguments carried by real characters, and a city that feels alive. It rewards patience. If you want a fast plot with little reflection, the long conversations and fevers may feel heavy.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A poor student lets a dark idea grow
- Poverty crushes whole families, not only one man
- One act of violence cannot be undone
- Friends and family cannot reach him
- Porfiry plays a patient game with his mind
- Sonya offers a different kind of strength
- Guilt is the real sentence
- Ideas are tested against real life
- Fever, dreams and a city told with close attention
Who’s who
- Rodion RaskolnikovA proud, brilliant, penniless former law student who believes he may be one of those allowed to break the rules, and who must test it.
- Sonya MarmeladovaThe gentle, deeply religious daughter of a drunken clerk, who supports her family by painful means and holds to her faith.
- Porfiry PetrovichThe shrewd, genial investigator who prefers to study a suspect's mind and nerves rather than gather simple proofs.
- DunyaRaskolnikov's strong-willed sister, who is ready to make a hard marriage for her family and will not be pushed around.
- RazumikhinRaskolnikov's warm, talkative and loyal friend, a poor student who works hard and cares for him without asking questions.
- Alyona IvanovnaThe old pawnbroker, hard and greedy, who lends money to the desperate and becomes the target of Raskolnikov's plan.
- LuzhinA vain, calculating lawyer engaged to Dunya, who values gratitude and status more than affection.
- SvidrigailovA wealthy, restless man with a dark reputation, linked to Dunya's past, who seems to care about nothing and fears nothing.
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- Large print hardcover
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Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky· 1866
A former student commits murder and struggles with his conscience.
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Language: Deutsch
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
A poor student lets a dark idea grow
The novel opens on a stifling July evening in St. Petersburg. Raskolnikov leaves his tiny attic room, which looks more like a cupboard than a home. He owes rent to his landlady and slips down the stairs to avoid meeting her. He is twenty-three, clever, proud and half starved, and he has dropped out of university because he cannot pay his fees.
He is walking to the flat of an old pawnbroker, Alyona Ivanovna, to try out a plan he thinks of as a rehearsal. He pawns a small silver watch that once belonged to his father, and all the while he studies her rooms, her keys and her habits. She is a sour, greedy woman who lends money at cruel rates to people in need. Her gentle half sister Lizaveta lives with her and is treated almost like a servant. Raskolnikov leaves the flat sick with disgust at himself, and yet he cannot drop the idea.
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The author
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
1821–1881 · Russian novelist
Fyodor Dostoyevsky was a Russian novelist born in Moscow in 1821. He lived in Saint Petersburg and spent years in Siberia after his arrest in 1849. He wrote Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1868–1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880). He died in Saint Petersburg in 1881.
“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart.”
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What is Crime and Punishment about?
It tells of Raskolnikov, a poor former student in St. Petersburg who kills a pawnbroker to prove a theory about extraordinary people, then struggles with guilt, fear and an investigator while seeking a way back to others.
Who is Sonya in Crime and Punishment?
Sonya Marmeladova is the gentle, devout young daughter of a drunken clerk. To support her family she is forced into a life she hates, and she becomes the person Raskolnikov turns to.
Is Crime and Punishment a true story?
No, it is a work of fiction, published in 1866. Dostoyevsky drew on newspaper crime reports, his own prison years and the poverty of St. Petersburg, but Raskolnikov and his story are invented.
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