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Published by Fyodor Dostoevsky in 1866 after his ten-year exile in Siberia, Crime and Punishment details the psychological pain and moral anguish of Rodion Raskolnikov, a poverty-stricken former student living in Saint Petersberg. Raskolnikov rationalizes his plan to murder an elderly pawnbroker for her money as an altruistic endeavor that will liberate him from poverty and allow him to work for the benefit of society. But once the deed is done, confusion, self-disgust, and paranoia consume him as he struggles to evade responsibility for the crime.