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Hot Pick
Crime and Punishment
In the stifling alleys of St. Petersburg, a young man commits a murder—not out of greed, but out of a fevered belief in his own moral exception. Crime and Punishment plunges into the shattered psyche of Raskolnikov, whose act of violence births a torment more relentless than justice itself. As guilt and redemption collide, the novel becomes a harrowing descent into the abyss of conscience, a crucible where reason and madness blur. Can one transcend morality to reshape the world—or does the soul exact its own terrible price? This is not merely a crime story, but a haunting meditation on what it means to be human in a world of suffering and consequence.
- Originally Published: 1866
- Publisher: Dover Publications, 2001
- Genre: Fiction, Psychological
- Pages: 448
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 978-0486415871
- Access: Members
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Notes From Underground
From the shadows of a St. Petersburg basement, an unnamed man rails against the world—and himself—in a voice as bitterly lucid as it is tragically human. Notes From Underground is a searing confession of alienation, pride, and self-destruction, where reason falters and freedom becomes a curse. Can a man be truly free if he cannot bear the weight of his own choices? At once ferocious and philosophical, this is a portrait of a mind at war with society, with morality, and with its own twisted desires. In the silence beneath civilization, what truths echo back?
- Originally Published: April 1864
- Publisher: Wordsworth Classics, 2015
- Genre: Fiction, Novella
- Pages: 168
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 9781840225778
- Access: Members
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Hot Pick
The Brothers Karamazov
The Brothers Karamazov is a tempest of faith, passion, and blood—where three brothers, torn by guilt, desire, and spiritual hunger, are drawn into a patricide that becomes a mirror for their own souls. Beneath the mystery of their father’s violent death lies a deeper trial: of God, of free will, and of the human heart’s capacity for both light and depravity. Can love redeem the chaos we inherit, or is every soul bound to wrestle alone with the divine and the absurd? Lyrical and relentless, this epic unearths the moral labyrinth at the core of every family—and every man. A novel as intimate as a confession and as vast as a cathedral.
- Originally Published: November 1880
- Publisher: Penguin Classic, 2003
- Genre: Novel
- Pages: 1056
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 978-0679410034
- Access: Prime Membership
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The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
In a world dulled by apathy and despair, one man—deemed ridiculous by all, including himself—stands on the brink of ending his life. But a strange dream carries him far beyond death, into a vision of radiant truth and heartbreaking corruption, where innocence once bloomed and was then destroyed by the very minds meant to cherish it. The Dreams of a Ridiculous Man is a luminous fable of redemption, madness, and metaphysical wonder, pulsing with the fire of a soul awakening to love and meaning. Can a single dream transform a life deemed worthless—and if so, why do we so often sleep through our own salvation? This brief tale grips like a parable and lingers like a wound, asking what it truly means to be human in a fractured world.
- Originally Published: 1877
- Published: Createspace Independent Pub, 2016
- Genre: Short Story, Philosophy
- Pages: 26
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 978-1535469142
- Access: Members
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The House of the Dead
Behind the iron gates of a Siberian prison, where frost bites deeper than regret, a nobleman condemned for murder watches souls unravel and humanity flicker like candlelight in the wind. The House of the Dead is both a brutal chronicle of incarceration and a meditative search for grace in a world stripped of dignity. Through the eyes of its introspective narrator, we confront a haunting question: can suffering purify, or does it simply erode? In this stark yet lyrical portrayal of degradation and unexpected tenderness, punishment becomes a mirror—reflecting not just guilt, but the strange resilience of the human spirit.
- Originally Published: 1861
- Publisher: Dover Publications, 2004
- Genre: Fiction
- Pages: 446
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN-13: 978-0486434094
- Access: Members
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The Idiot
In a world driven by vanity, power, and concealed wounds, what place is there for pure goodness? The Idiot follows Prince Myshkin—a man of childlike honesty and saintly compassion—whose return to Russian society sets off a quiet storm of obsession, betrayal, and unspoken despair. As he moves through a web of wounded souls and fevered passions, his innocence becomes both a beacon and a curse, casting light on the madness that masquerades as reason. Is it folly to live with an unguarded heart—or is it the only form of sanity left? With haunting tenderness and tragic irony, this luminous novel exposes the cruel bewilderment of a society that cannot recognize grace, even as it longs for it.
- Originally Published: 1869
- Publisher : Everyman’s Library, 2002
- Pages: 632
- Genre: Novel
- Book Type: Hardcopy/Hardcover
- ISBN-13: 978-1857152548
- Access: Prime Membership