Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment topped Open Culture's crowdsourced list of Books Intelligent People Should Read. I certainly enjoyed its narrow intensity, a stark contrast to the broad sweep of the same author's equally magisterial The Brothers Karamazov.
In On the Subject That We All Are Good Fellows,” Fyodor Dostoyevsky discusses our deepest goodness, emanating a deep faith in the human spirit - all the more impressive given what Dostoyevsky himself endured - and a conviction that we are inherently good despite the badness we sometimes put on like an ill-fitting suit to impress by imitating those we mistake for impressive.
Dostoevsky believed that utopias were, by definition, incompatible with human nature, which gravitates toward freedom. People, he argued, would rather be free in an imperfect world than unfree in a perfect one. Since the line between utopias and dictatorships is unclear, the writer also believed that the planning one would inevitably result in the creation of the other.
If you’re looking for a lighter, more playful take on the novel, then Dostoyevsky Comics (click here to view), is a short cartoon adaptation that somehow inserts Batman into the Russian tale.