Print ISBN: 978-1-63700-730-3
# of Pages: 274
# of Volumes: 1
Print List Price: $105
e-ISBN: 978-1-63700-731-0
eBook User Price: $105
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Critical Insights: Crime and Punishment

Editor: Robert C. Evans
February 2024


Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, is widely regarded as one of the most powerful and influential novels ever written. It is constantly translated and re-translated, and it is also the source for several films and television miniseries.

Dostoevsky’s account of the brutal murder of a simple old woman (and her unlucky sister) by a disillusioned young intellectual is at once a gripping intellectual mystery and a compelling detective story as well as an exceptionally probing and thought-provoking work full of philosophical, political, and theological dimensions. Raskolnikov, the novel’s central character, is an especially memorable figure, but so are the detective who investigates his crime and Sonia, the young woman who helps Raskolnikov achieve a sort of redemption from his crime by the time the novel ends.

This volume will explore Crime and Punishment from numerous perspectives, including the biographical, historical, philosophical, sociological, aesthetic, and thematic. It will also study the numerous ways the novel has been interpreted, adapted, and valued in the more than a century-and-a-half since it first appeared in print.

This volume on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment, like all the other volumes in the Critical Insights series, is divided into several parts. It opens with an introductory essay by volume editor Robert C. Evans, followed by an essay "The Many ‘-Cides’ of Dostoevsky: Tolstoy’s ‘Deaths’ vs. Dostoevsky’s ‘Murders’" by Michael R. Katz. This introductory section ends with an author biography by Lee A. Farrow and transitions to a “Critical Contexts” section consisting of four essays (each with a distinctive focus).

  • Raskolnikov and Acedia by Christopher Baker

  • Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment: Some Important Modern Essays by Melissa Anderson

  • Theory and Practice in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment by Edwin Wong

  • Chris Hannan’s Stage Version of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment: A Survey of Reviews by Sue Norton

Following the four “Critical Context” essays is the “Critical Readings” section of this book, which contains the following essays:

  • Important Editions of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment by Lee Farrow

  • Raskolnikov and Acedia by Christopher Baker

  • Talking to Himself: Raskolnikov’s “Schizophrenia” in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment by Robert C. Evans

  • Irony, Ambiguity, and Psychological Vertigo in Part Four, Chapter Five of Crime and Punishment by Robert C. Evans

  • Heart, Head, Hands: Embodying Affect in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment by Matthew M. Thiele

  • Early Illustrations of Various Episodes of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment by Robert C. Evans

  • Early Illustrations of Raskolnikov from Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment by Jordan Bailey

  • Raskolnikov’s Crime: Four Film Versions by Christopher Baker

  • Three Films (from 1970, 1979, and 2002) of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment by Robert C. Evans

  • Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment: The 2002 BBC Miniseries by Robert C. Evans

Additional Resources Include:

  • Chronology of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Life

  • Works by Fyodor Dostoevsky

  • Bibliography

  • About the Editor

  • Contributors

  • Index

The Critical Insights Series distills the best of both classic and current literary criticism of the world’s most studied literature. Edited and written by some of academia’s most distinguished literary scholars, Critical Insights: Crime and Punishment provides authoritative, in-depth scholarship that students and researchers will rely on for years. This volume is destined to become a valuable purchase for all.

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