本书是陀斯妥耶夫斯基最伟大的代表作之一，是作家完全走向独创性的一个成熟的标志。从欧洲长篇小说发展历史的角度对之进行考察，可以说，这是一部俄罗斯式的新长篇小说，描述了主人公罗季昂·拉斯科尔尼科夫由于深受西方思想的影响，一度走上了犯罪的道路，然而在索尼娅的影响下，他终于克服了自己内心的矛盾，主动到警察局投案自首，并在宗教中找到了新生的故事。

A desperate young man plans the perfect crime--the murder of a despicable pawnbroker, an old woman no ne loves and whom no one will mourn. Is it not just,he reasons, for a man of genius to commit such a crime, to transgress moral law--if it will ultimately benefit humanity? So begins one of the greatest novels ever written: a powerful psychological study, a terrifying murder mystery, a fascinating detective thriller infused with philosophical, religious, and social commentary.

Raskolnikov, an impoverished student living in a garret in the gloomy slums of St. Petersburg, carries out his grotesque scheme and plunges into a hell of persecution,madness, and terror. Crime and Punishment takes the reader on a journey into the darkest recesses of the criminal and depraved mind, and exposes the soul of a man possessed by both good and evil...a man who cannot escape, his own conscience.