Why Spend Time with Dostoevsky [by Mark]

I recently read Joseph Frank's Lectures on Dostoevsky, and found this early in the book:

Dostoevsky is not a writer to struggle through or with, but one who tries to make his work as interesting and exciting—and as readable—as possible. His works raise some of the deepest moral and philosophical issues of Western culture, but he also wanted to keep his readers interested.

For one thing, it was necessary for him to do so. He was the only important Russian writer of his time who wrote for a living, and his income was dependent on his popularity. As a result, he used devices like mystery and suspense, techniques ordinarily associated with types of narrative written for a mass audience, for serious themes that rivaled what can be found in poetic tragedy. Actually, in doing so he was following in the footsteps of non-Russians like Hugo, Balzac, and Dickens, who also dealt with serious moral and social issues and used such mystery-story or adventure-story techniques.

The gap between the two kinds of literature was much wider in Russia than in Europe, probably because there was no real mass audience in Russia—most of the population was illiterate—and books circulated largely only among the upper classes. This situation changed, of course, as time went on. But this is one reason Dostoevsky remains one of the most widely read of the Russian classic writers throughout the world, and the list of screen and stage adaptations based on his works grows every year. Among the great writers of the nineteenth century, Dostoevsky seems the most contemporary to present-day readers. It is as if his works do not deal with issues of the past but are directly relevant to those of the present day.