Dostoyevsky's own passion for gambling lays in foundation of this novel. He first gambled at the gaming tables at Wiesbaden and later, when his passion for gambling subsided, he played at Baden-Baden, often beginning by winning a small amount of money and losing far more in the end. Using his future work as collateral with his publisher in exchange for cash he was eventually given a final deadline to complete the novel or sell the rights to all his work in the next nine years. So great was the pressure that Dostoyevsky was only able to finish the novel on time using one of the very first...

Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in St. Petersburg who formulates and executes a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her cash. Raskolnikov argues that with the pawnbroker's money he can perform good deeds to counterbalance the crime, while ridding the world of a worthless vermin. He also commits this murder to test his own hypothesis that some people are naturally capable of such things, and even have the right to do them. Several times throughout the novel, Raskolnikov justifies his actions by...