About
Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (1866) is one of the greatest psychological novels ever written. It follows Raskolnikov, a destitute student who murders a pawnbroker to test his theory that extraordinary people are above conventional morality — and then must live with the psychological aftermath.
Dostoevsky wrote the novel under enormous financial pressure, dictating it to a stenographer (Anna Snitkina, who became his wife) to meet a deadline. It anticipates 20th-century existentialism, psychoanalysis, and modern thriller writing. Freud called Dostoevsky one of the three greatest geniuses in human history.
# Top 10 Crime and Punishment facts
- 1Dostoevsky dictated Crime and Punishment to his future wife Anna to meet a contractual deadline
- 2He wrote it while being pursued by debt collectors and gambling away his advance
- 3Freud ranked Dostoevsky alongside Shakespeare and Sophocles as one of the three greatest creative geniuses
Fascinating Facts
- ◆Dostoevsky dictated Crime and Punishment to his future wife Anna to meet a contractual deadline
- ◆He wrote it while being pursued by debt collectors and gambling away his advance
- ◆Freud ranked Dostoevsky alongside Shakespeare and Sophocles as one of the three greatest creative geniuses
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