The year 2024 witnessed a boom in readers’ love for old and forgotten classics. One name that appeared on almost every social media platform was Fyodor Dostoevsky. The Guardian referred to it as Fyodor Fever. The article also mentions:

“In 2024, the Penguin Classics little black book edition of Dostoevsky’s White Nights was the fourth most sold work of literature in translation in the UK”
(West-Knights).

Everyone on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube is raving about White Nights calling it the perfect classic for beginners, the most relatable story on unrequited love, and the perfect tale for dreamers. There is no doubt that the reading community is obsessed with Fyodor Dostoevsky. Many of his other works including Crime and Punishment, Notes from Underground, and Brothers Karamazov are enjoying the same hype as White Nights.

But why this sudden obsession with Dostoevsky? I remember as an English major we used to think of Russian literature as one of the toughest options to start reading. Dostoevsky was regarded as one of the hardest authors to understand, and rightfully so! Then why is White Nights everywhere on the newsfeed of Millenials and Gen Z alike?

There are some similar patterns that I have observed in Dostoevsky’s writings and modern-day lifestyle that I believe are the reason for the reader’s obsession with Dostoevsky.

The romantic relationships in Dostoevsky’s fictional world are highly complex. His characters often have dreamy versions of their beloved. The streak of unrequited love is pretty strong in his writings. Romantic relationships in the modern-day world exhibit the same complexity. The contemporary fiction shows the same, as in Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler and Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney.

The reading community wants to read about relatable characters, not someone extremely intellectual or smart, just a simple relatable character that has the same dilemmas as them. White Nights is the perfect example of the complexity of romantic relationships. The narrator is in love with Nastenka, while she cries:

“Why isn’t he you? Why isn’t he like you? He is not as good as you, though I love him more than you.”

The book ends with the saddest statement:

“My God, a whole moment of happiness! Is that too little for the whole of man’s life?”

The reading community knows and has experienced the complexity of modern-day romantic relationships and finding an exploration of the same dilemmas in a classical work is surely commendable. Dostoevsky’s characters have the same sorrows and suffering as the modern-day reader and therefore the author appears to be the ideal choice even for the beginners.

A very obvious theme in Dostoevsky’s writing is the theme of moral ambiguity. He creates morally grey characters who are trapped in situations in which they cannot decide right from wrong. For instance, Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment rationalizes murder as a means to an end. The novel claims:

“To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s.”

The modern-day readers face similar situations, there are surely no murders but well…there might be! People justify their most vicious activities. Anyway, I surely don’t recommend doing that, I only want to point out that modern-day readers are often trapped in situations that cannot be solved with moral or ethical stances.

Do you know any readers who have not experienced a spiritual crisis? I don’t…We live in an age where spirituality feels extravagant. We wake up every day, facing the cruel financial realities that trap us, we have bills to pay and things to do, and our due dates are the throat monsters absorbing all oxygen around us. Do you think we would believe that a prayer would resolve it all? Most of us don’t and it is perfectly normal to have a crisis. The feelings of loss of faith are normal because we live in a pretty chaotic world.

Dostoevsky’s novels normalize the spiritual crisis. We realize that we are not alone in our sufferings and dilemmas. Notes from Underground is my favorite book that speaks of these dilemmas. The narrator rejects conventional morality and religion. This rejection stems from his belief that humans are inherently flawed and incapable of achieving true virtue.

Similar to the Underground Man, most of the readers now feel alienated from both society and religion. Many people today struggle with feelings of isolation and a loss of faith in traditional systems of meaning. Dostoevsky successfully imitates the feelings of modern man in his timeless classics.

There are surely many other reasons why the readers are now obsessed with Dostoevsky but these are the most obvious ones. Whatever the reasons might be, it is surely quite encouraging to know that readers are now coming back to the classics.

Reading Dostoevsky became one of the most notable reading trends in 2024 because of his complex yet relatable characters and deep existential themes. From the psychological intricacies in Crime and Punishment to the spiritual crises explored in Notes from Underground, Dostoevsky’s works captivated a new wave of literary enthusiasts. As we step into the new year, I truly hope this love for Dostoevsky will continue to grow, sparking a renewed passion for classic literature as a whole.

References:

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. Lebooks Editora, 2025.

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. White Nights. Penguin UK, 2016.

West-Knight, Imogen. “Fyodor Fever: How Dostoevsky Became a Social Media Sensation.” The Guardian, 7 Jan. 2025, www.theguardian.com/books/2024/dec/17/white-nights-fyodor-dostoevsky-social-media-instagram-booktok-tiktok.