Crime and Punishment
Dostoevsky offered his story to the publisher Mikhail Katkov. At the time, he did not think of Crime and Punishment as a novel. Famous writers such as Ivan Turgenev and Leo Tolstoy often used Katkov's monthly journal, The Russian Messenger, to print their writings. Dostoevsky, though, had argued with Katkov in the early 1860s, and had never printed anything in the journal. Finally, Dostoevsky asked Katkov for help when others would not print his book. In September 1865, Dostoevsky wrote a letter to Katkov. In the letter, he explained to him that Crime and Punishment was going to be about a young man who believes in "certain strange, 'unfinished' ideas, yes floating in the air". He also said that he wanted to study the moral and psychological dangers of "radical" ideas. In letters written in November 1865 an important change had happened: the "story" has become a "novel", From then on, Dostoevsky always spoke of Crime and Punishment as a novel.