Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor
Dostoevsky, first published in 1866. It was written after Dostoevsky's
return from five years of exile in Siberia, where he was serving his
sentence in camps similar to those of the infamous Soviet Gulag. Crime
and Punishment deals with the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of
Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikove, a poor ex-student from St. Pertersburg
who designs and executes a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for
her money. Raskolnikov reasons that with the pawnbroker's money he can
perform good deeds to counterbalance crime, while ridding the world of a
worthless parasite. His actions are a test of his theory that some
people are naturally able to and also have the right to murder.
Raskolnikov also justifies his actions by mentally associating himself
with Napoleon Bonaparte, believing that murder is permissible in pursuit
of a higher purpose, only to find out, of course, that he is not
Napoleon.