Since I first read the his work as a freshman at college I have never cared much for the novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky. I found his writings to be very windy and somewhat trite, an opinion which was then and is now so politically incorrect that it borders on thoughtcrime. He began writing novels detailing the psychology of the demented, twisted, and schizophrenic mind shortly after his release from an eight year imprisonment and siberian exile for political agitation. His first novel after his imprisonment, Notes from Underground, is one of those books that one who reads it never forgets and is considered a watershed event by his biographers. The nameless Underground Man, as he is known in literary circles, leads the reader on a chilling psychological tour of a tortured , convoluted, utterly introverted soul. As many commentators have noted, Dostoevsky's attempt to distance himself from the Underground Man in the famous line from the author's note

The author of the diary and the diary itself are, of course, imaginary. Nevertheless it is clear that such persons as the writer of these notes not only may, but positively must, exist in our society, when we consider the circumstances in the midst of which our society is formed.

does not ring true. This novel is almost certainly a reflection of the torments and isolation the author must have suffered during his prison ordeal. An excerpt from a letter written by Dostoevsky from prison is instructive:

There were moments when I hated everybody I came across, innocent or guilty, and looked at them as thieves who were robbing me of my life with impunity. The most unbearable misfortune is when you yourself become unjust, malignant, vile; you realize it, you even reproach yourself - but you just can't help it.

These words could have been written by the Underground Man himself.
       My guess is that the popularity of Dostoevsky's work is due mostly to political considerations. Much of his work can be interpeted by those so inclined in Nietzschian terms as anti-christian and his portrayal of the poor and disenfranchised as twisted by a deranged society who it is implicitly understood must be led out of the wilderness by those superior intellects who sympathetically understand their plight is politically correct in the modern world.