>>I was, OTOH, quite surprised with Bulat Okudzhava's "Journey of dilettantes". It read like a soft Dostoyevsky. It's quite similar in atmosphere, time, even events that shape the characters' destiny, yet you see the author's heart is so openly on the side of the main characters - he just loves the couple.
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>I understand your points and obviously I explained my own opinion. You probably know about two lines in Russian classical literature: one to preach, another to show. Dostoyevsky is the hardest of the first line, and reading 500 pages when every page tries to convince me in something by rather crude examples was unbearable to my taste. By the same reason I have reservations about Tolstoy books, though they have much better (imho) style.

I did read them when I was much younger and less critical :). Dostoyevsky did have an amazing technique for the time, interweaving criminal investigation with psychology with social issues with religious issues with decent character building... so in the end it is a page turner. I guess I was immune to preaching even then, so that aspect was only a bit annoying or just entertaining (like the story of the Grand Inquisitor in Karamazovs). It read as a great documentary, though. I got quite a clear picture of the place and the times. Not necessarily the right picture, but clear all the same.