At the center of attention in this, one of Dostoevsky’s most significant works, is a love triangle. Fyodor Mikhailovich, like a great psychologist, peers into the hidden corners of human souls. He tries to reveal the plans and motives behind a person’s behavior in unusual and often improper situations. But this is not someone distant and long ago. Dostoevsky’s works are eternal, and in many of them we constantly recognize either our acquaintances, or friends, or relatives—and sometimes even ourselves.
The key characters of this story had real-life prototypes—people who were acquaintances and relatives of the writer himself.