Often considered a prologue to Dostoevskys brilliant novels, the story "Notes from Underground" introduces one of the great anti-heroes in literature: the underground man, who lives on the fringes of society. In an impassioned, manic monologue this characterplagued by shame, guilt, and alienationargues that reason is merely a flimsy construction built upon humanitys essentially irrational core. Internal conflict is...

Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders through the slums of St Petersburg and commits a random murder without remorse or regret. He imagines himself to be a great man, a Napoleon: acting for a higher purpose beyond conventional moral law. But as he embarks on a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a suspicious police investigator, Raskolnikov is pursued by the growing voice of his conscience and finds the noose of his own guilt...

Dostoevskys most revolutionary novel, Notes from Underground marks the dividing line between nineteenth- and twentieth-century fiction, and between the visions of self each century embodied. One of the most remarkable characters in literature, the unnamed narrator is a former official who has defiantly withdrawn into an underground existence. In complete retreat from society, he scrawls a passionate, obsessive, self-contradictory narrative...

The story of a poor, imperious, eccentric former law student who believes that he is a special kind of superman exempt from any moral law. He murders a woman and her sister and is then sent to prison for years.

Crippled by guilt and paranoia after committing a murder he thinks is just, Roderick Raskolnikov is torn between the detective investigating the murder and the woman he saved, who now wants to save his soul.

Partner: Tells the tale of Jacob (Pierre Clementi), a revolutionary who also happens to suffer from schizophrenia. He spends much of his time plotting a social upheaval that will single-handedly change the state of post-war Italy. Jacob devises this plan with a mysterious man whom he shares an apartment with, although they argue quite a bit in-between philosophical and political discussions. Jacob shakes things up when he falls for the daughter (Stefania...