&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LI&&RCrime and Punishment&&L/I&&R, by &&LB&&RFyodor Dostoevsky&&L/B&&R, is part of the
&&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R&&LI&&R &&L/I&&Rseries, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R:
&&LDIV&&R
- New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars
- Biographies of the authors
- Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
- Footnotes and endnotes
- Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
- Comments by other famous authors
- Study questions to challenge the readers viewpoints and expectations
- Bibliographies for further reading
- Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate
All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics &&L/I&&Rpulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each readers understanding of these enduring works.&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R &&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&RFew authors have been as personally familiar with desperation as &&LSTRONG&&RFyodor Dostoevsky&&L/B&&R, and none have been so adept at describing it. &&LI&&RCrime and Punishment&&L/I&&R—the novel that heralded the author’s period of masterworks—tells the story of the poor and talented student Raskolnikov, a character of unparalleled psychological depth and complexity. Raskolnikov reasons that men like himself, by virtue of their intellectual superiority, can and must transcend societal law. To test his theory, he devises the perfect crime—the murder of a spiteful pawnbroker living in St. Petersburg. &&LBR&&R &&LBR&&RIn one of the most gripping crime stories of all time, Raskolnikov soon realizes the folly of his abstractions. Haunted by vivid hallucinations and the torments of his conscience, he seeks relief from his terror and moral isolation—first from Sonia, the pious streetwalker who urges him to confess, then in a tense game of cat and mouse with Porfiry, the brilliant magistrate assigned to the murder investigation. A &&LI&&Rtour de force&&L/I&&R of suspense, &&LI&&RCrime and Punishment&&L/I&&R delineates the theories and motivations that underlie a bankrupt morality.&&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R &&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LB&&RPriscilla Meyer &&L/B&&Ris Professor of Russian Language and Literature at Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut. She published &&LI&&RFind What the Sailor Has Hidden&&L/I&&R, the first monograph on Vladimir Nabokov’s &&LI&&RPale Fire&&L/I&&R, and edited the first English translation of Andrei Bitov’s collection of short stories, &&LI&&RLife in Windy Weather&&L/I&&R. &&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky was born in Moscow in 1821, the 2nd of 7 children. From 1849 to 1854 he lived in a convict prison, and in later years his passion for gambling led him deeply into debt. In 1880 he delivered his famous address at theunveiling of Pushkin's memorial in Moscow; he died six months later in 1881. David McDuff has translated a number of nineteenth-century Russian prose works for the Penguin Classics series.
