Can Dostoevsky Still Kick You in the Gut?
It was something more than a bow or salute I made to Dostoevski. It was more like a prayer, a prayer that he would unlock the secret of revelation.
To get a better idea of the allure, check out this great 2012 essay in the New Yorker about "Notes from the Underground." Money quote:
The modern element in “Notes from Underground” is Dostoevsky’s exultation in human perversity.
You can read this book as a meta-fiction about creating a voice, or as a case study, but you can’t escape reading it also as an accusation of human insufficiency rendered without the slightest trace of self-righteousness.
If you begin by grieving for its hero, he upsets you with so much truth of our common nature that you wind up grieving for yourself—for your own insufficiency.