The longevity of the novel partly lies in the naïve yet profound main character Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin's charm. Whether he is in fact a saint or a hapless berk is a matter of opinion. I think he might be both. The influence of Dostoyevsky, one of the big-cheeses of world literature, can be seen in a range of disciplines from literature, film, painting, theatre and even psychology and philosophy. Having said that, he didn't get off to an easy start, and his early novel "The Double" was panned by the critics at the time. It has since seen a resurgence in popularity, and is a firm favourite for many a reader (myself included). He later veered further towards politics, philosophy and theology, which his critics have said get the prose of his novels bogged down, but it seems to me that they are inseparable. Dostoyevsky was sentenced to four years of hard labour for his involvement in the Petrashevsky Circle, seen as revolutionary conspirators. The main evidence against them were essays written by Dostoyevsky's associate Belinsky (a member of the group). However, Dostoyevsky had already fallen out with Belinsky over religion, the subject of the essays. He did his time however, and even got a book out of it, the understandingly depressing "House of the Dead". "Crime and Punishment" was published in 1866 and has always been one of Dostoyevsky's most popular and influential tales. It is a wonderful book that manages to juggle all the usual Dostoyevsky themes and remain accessible to those not wishing to plough through abstruse passages in search of enlightenment.

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