Part 1, Chapter 3 — the letter from his mother
Raskolnikov wakes late and finds the longest letter of his life waiting for him: his mother's account of why his sister has decided to marry Luzhin.
Summary
Raskolnikov wakes late after a fitful sleep that has done him no good. He looks around his garret with active loathing — the yellow paper, the dust, the worn-out sofa, the broken three-legged table. The servant Nastasya brings him cabbage soup and a thick letter that has just arrived. He recognizes his mother's handwriting. He waits for Nastasya to leave before he opens it.
The letter, reproduced in full, is from Pulcheria Alexandrovna in the provinces. Dunya has been working as a governess in the household of one Svidrigailov; the wife, Marfa Petrovna, had spread slander about her; the truth has come out, the slander's real source was Svidrigailov himself, who had pressed his attentions on Dunya. Marfa Petrovna has turned the whole town in Dunya's favor. Dunya has met, through her intervention, a respectable lawyer — Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin, a court counsellor of forty-five, eager to marry a poor and beautiful young woman who will be grateful to him forever. He has explained as much in writing, with a frankness Pulcheria Alexandrovna finds reassuring. Dunya has accepted. Mother and sister are traveling to Petersburg within days.
Raskolnikov reads the letter twice. By the second reading his face is wet. He drops it. He paces the garret. He sees the calculation precisely: Luzhin is buying a wife who will be his property; Dunya is selling herself for the family, for him in particular. The parallel to Sonya is exact and unbearable. He bursts out, half aloud: "This marriage will not happen, while I am alive." He leaves the garret. By the time he reaches the street he has stopped walking and started thinking again about the old woman.
- Part 1 · Chapter 1An unbearably hot evening in early July. A half-starved former student sneaks past his landlady and walks the seven hundred and...
- Part 1 · Chapter 2Marmeladov, a drunkard ex-clerk in the tavern, attaches himself to Raskolnikov and pours out his story — the consumptive wife, the...
- Part 1 · Chapter 3Raskolnikov wakes late and reads a long, devoted letter from his mother. Dunya has been forced from the Svidrigailov household...
- Part 1 · Chapter 4Raskolnikov rages against the marriage as he walks. The parallel to Sonya is exact: women selling themselves to keep men afloat....
- Part 1 · Chapter 5Raskolnikov falls asleep in a copse and dreams himself a child watching a peasant beat a small mare to death with a crowbar while...
- Part 1 · Chapter 6Raskolnikov sews a loop inside his coat to carry an axe and wraps a wooden plank in tinfoil to look like a silver cigarette case...
- Part 1 · Chapter 7Alyona Ivanovna turns to the lamp to unwrap the pledge. Raskolnikov draws the axe and hits her on the crown with the blunt edge....
- Part 2 · Chapter 1A police summons arrives. Raskolnikov is convinced they have come for him. The summons is about an unpaid IOU his landlady has...
- Part 2 · Chapter 2Raskolnikov cannot bear his garret. He walks the streets all afternoon — back to the murder apartment to ring the bell again, then...
- Part 2 · Chapter 3Raskolnikov collapses into four days of brain fever. Nastasya feeds him soup. Razumikhin, who has tracked him down, takes charge...
- Part 2 · Chapter 4Razumikhin has gathered Zossimov the doctor and Zametov the police clerk at Raskolnikov's bedside. The conversation drifts to the...
- Part 2 · Chapter 5Luzhin walks into the garret to introduce himself, expecting gratitude. He delivers a lecture on rational self-interest — love...
- Part 2 · Chapter 6Raskolnikov gets up and walks. He finds Zametov in a tavern and sits down. He plays at the murder — describing how it must have...
- Part 2 · Chapter 7A carriage runs over Marmeladov on the street. Raskolnikov pays to have him carried home. Katerina Ivanovna sends for Sonya, who...
- Part 3 · Chapter 1Raskolnikov comes home to find his mother and sister in the garret weeping over him. He cannot bear it. He pushes them away, says...
- Part 3 · Chapter 2Razumikhin wakes hung over and unaccountably miserable. He realizes, by mid-morning, that he is in love with Dunya. He shaves...
- Part 3 · Chapter 3The household visits Porfiry Petrovich, the investigating magistrate, ostensibly about the pawned watch and ring. Porfiry has read...
- Part 3 · Chapter 4Sonya knocks at the garret door in plain mourning clothes to invite Raskolnikov to her father's funeral. Raskolnikov's mother and...
- Part 3 · Chapter 5Late that night a small tradesman from the murder building appears at Raskolnikov's door. He says one word: "Murderer." Then turns...
- Part 3 · Chapter 6Svidrigailov sits in the garret and talks freely — about his dead wife who appears to him, about Dunya, about his desire to see...
- Part 4 · Chapter 1Svidrigailov's visit drags on, with strange asides about eternity as a smoky room with spiders. He leaves. Raskolnikov walks with...
- Part 4 · Chapter 2Luzhin walks in expecting deference and gets a confrontation. He demands Raskolnikov be sent away; Dunya refuses. He lectures her...
- Part 4 · Chapter 3Raskolnikov tells his mother and sister he must be alone. He embraces them with a finality that frightens Dunya. Razumikhin...
- Part 4 · Chapter 4Raskolnikov goes to Sonya's room — an irregular, almost empty space on the canal. He asks her cruel questions about her family's...
- Part 4 · Chapter 5The second Porfiry interview. Porfiry plays for nearly an hour — wandering, anecdotal, indirect, pushing Raskolnikov toward the...
- Part 4 · Chapter 6Raskolnikov walks out of Porfiry's and remembers the rest of the day afterwards as a single fugue. The workman who had called him...
- Part 5 · Chapter 1Luzhin sits in his rooms the morning after, planning revenge. He will discredit Raskolnikov by ruining Sonya — frame her for theft...
- Part 5 · Chapter 2Katerina Ivanovna has spent nearly all the funeral money on a "respectable" dinner to prove to her landlady that she is still a...
- Part 5 · Chapter 3Luzhin walks in and accuses Sonya of stealing a hundred-rouble note. The note is found in her pocket. The room turns on her....
- Part 5 · Chapter 4Raskolnikov goes with Sonya to her room. He tells her he killed both women. She, after the shock, falls on his neck weeping. She...
- Part 5 · Chapter 5Lebezyatnikov bursts in. Katerina Ivanovna, evicted, has dressed the children in scraps of costume and is dragging them from...
- Part 6 · Chapter 1A drifting chapter. Raskolnikov spends days in a fog, seeing no one. Razumikhin comes to confront him — Dunya has had a strange...
- Part 6 · Chapter 2Porfiry drops the game. He tells Raskolnikov plainly: I know it was you. Mikolka's confession is false. I have collected the signs...
- Part 6 · Chapter 3Raskolnikov finds Svidrigailov at the back of a tavern. The conversation runs long. Svidrigailov talks about debts, prison, Marfa...
- Part 6 · Chapter 4Svidrigailov keeps talking. He says plainly what he has hinted: he has been living in the room next to Sonya's. The wall is thin....
- Part 6 · Chapter 5Dunya goes to Svidrigailov's lodgings with the letter and a small revolver hidden in her coat. He locks the door. He proposes the...
- Part 6 · Chapter 6Svidrigailov walks the city after Dunya leaves. He gives three thousand roubles to Sonya for the children. He gives fifteen...
- Part 6 · Chapter 7Raskolnikov goes to his mother's lodgings and kneels at her feet. He asks her to bless him whatever happens. He embraces her...
- Part 6 · Chapter 8Raskolnikov goes to Sonya. She gives him the wooden cross. He kneels in Hay Square and kisses the earth but cannot say the words....
- Epilogue · Chapter 1Eight months between confession and trial. Raskolnikov pleads guilty; the court, citing mitigating factors brought by Razumikhin...
- Epilogue · Chapter 2Easter week. Raskolnikov falls ill and dreams of a plague that turns thinking men against each other until the world is destroyed....