Crime and Punishment

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky provide an excellent translation of Dostoevsky's incredible psychological thriller, newly revised for his bicentennial, with the same flexibility, energy, and range of voices that earned their translation of The Brothers Karamazov the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize.Raskolnikov, a poor student living in tsarist St. Petersburg, commits a murder and a theft, beginning a narrative that is almost unparalleled in world literature for its intense tension, vivid atmosphere, and rich characters and worldview. The heinous tale of an elderly woman's murder is transformed into the most profound and captivating philosophical work of the nineteenth century by Dostoevsky's drama of sin, guilt, and redemption.