{"product_id":"crime-and-punishment-9780553211757","title":"Crime and Punishment","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e's\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time - \u003c\/b\u003eNominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's \u003ci\u003eThe Great American Read \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA desperate young man plans the perfect crime--the murder of a despicable pawnbroker, an old women no one loves and 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. \u003ci\u003eCrime and Punishment\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFYODOR MIKAILOVICH DOSTOEVSKY'\u003ci\u003es\u003c\/i\u003e life was as dark and dramatic as the great novels he wrote. He was born in Moscow in 1821. A short first novel, \u003ci\u003ePoor Folk \u003c\/i\u003e(1846) brought him instant success, but his writing career was cut short by his arrest for alleged subversion against Tsar Nicholas I in 1849. In prison he was given the \"silent treatment\" for eight months (guards even wore velvet soled boots) before he was led in front a firing squad. Dressed in a death shroud, he faced an open grave and awaited execution, when suddenly, an order arrived commuting his sentence. He then spent four years at hard labor in a Siberian prison, where he began to suffer from epilepsy, and he returned to St. Petersburg only a full ten years after he had left in chains. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHis prison experiences coupled with his conversion to a profoundly religious philosophy formed the basis for his great novels. But it was his fortuitous marriage to Anna Snitkina, following a period of utter destitution brought about by his compulsive gambling, that gave Dostoevsky the emotional stability to complete \u003ci\u003eCrime and Punishment \u003c\/i\u003e(1866), \u003ci\u003eThe Idiot\u003c\/i\u003e (1868-69), \u003ci\u003e The Possessed \u003c\/i\u003e(1871-72), and \u003ci\u003eThe Brothers Karamazov \u003c\/i\u003e(1879-80). When Dostoevsky died in 1881, he left a legacy of masterworks that influenced the great thinkers and writers of the Western world and immortalized him as a giant among writers of world literature.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Bantam Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50569182347538,"sku":"9780553211757","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_31b34296-cdbe-4acf-9b1f-654232ef3a65.jpg?v=1768914399","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/crime-and-punishment-9780553211757","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}