Crime and Punishment [Large Print Edition]

Book excerpt: This premium quality large print volume includes the complete and unabridged classic translation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's " Crime and Punishment" -- a work which became an enduring and still-popular classic, exerting a world-wide influence that continues today. This freshly edited and newly typeset edition features heavyweight 60# bright white paper and a large 7.44"x9.69" page size with a fully laminated cover featuring an original full color design. Also included in this volume is extensive introductory commentary, including biographical and critical essays, discussing Dostoyevsky's life, work and literary significance, to provide useful background information for the modern reader. "Crime and Punishment..." A psychological novel written before the phrase "psychological novel" existed, "Crime and Punishment" is widely regarded as Dostoyevsky's masterpiece, establishing his reputation as a powerful and influential novelist. Against the backdrop of the oppressive heat and smell of summer in St. Petersburg and in the shadow of religious faith, Dostoyevsky explores complex themes of alienation, criminal psychology, guilt, nihilism, expiation, atonement, and what might today be considered narcissistic personality disorder and in an earlier time might have been called megalomania. Convinced that "superior" people, like himself, are above the law, Raskolnikov believes that he could make much better use of an old woman's wealth and decides he is entitled to rob her. When the robbery goes horribly wrong, Raskolnikov begins to doubt his superiority, and his growing guilt and a cat-and-mouse game that ensues with Porfiry Petrovich, the shrewd police investigator, drives him further into isolation and despair. Focusing on the psychological punishment Raskolnikov suffers as a result of his crime, Dostoyevsky suggests that true rehabilitation can come only through atonement and redemption, regardless of any punishment meted out by the authorities. Like Dickens in England, Dostoyevsky was embraced by the masses about whom he wrote and to whom he spoke, despite criticism by contemporary "experts" who found his subject matter unsuitable for "literature" and his work lacking in style and technical merit. And like Dickens, Dostoyevsky has become an inextricable part of the culture of his country and the essential literature of the world.