Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Published in 1866 as Prestupleniye i nakazaniye, Crime and Punishment was the first masterpiece by Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It is a psychological analysis of the poor student Raskolnikov, whose theory that humanitarian ends justify evil means leads him to murder a St. Petersburg pawnbroker. The act produces nightmarish guilt in Raskolnikov.