That was what I thought, too. But there’s a letter written by his wife where she says that she is going to burn it, so that seems to be the accepted version. Either way, it’s a great story.

An interesting piece of trivia is that the book that we have is Stevenson’s second attempt at the novel. After he wrote the first version, based on a dream, his wife burnt it after judging it to be “utter nonsense.” He then had to rewrite it from scratch.

I couldn’t disagree more.

As a counterexample, take Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. It’s based on a 19th century classic (David Copperfield) and follows the same plot beat for beat, with the same characters recast in modern day Appalachia. It won the 2023 Pulitzer and other awards, sold well, and is widely loved.

Of course, if Crime and Punishment were written today, elements of the plot would have to be updated (the Marmeladov plotline could not happen in that way today), and Dostoevsky would no doubt have incorporated some of the fictional techniques that have been developed since. But there’s a reason why people still enjoy Crime and Punishment, and a similar book absolutely could do well.

It’s easy to get trapped in a genre and think that everything is fantasy or YA. But literary fiction exists, and many very good writers are trying to produce today’s version of Anna Karenina or Crime and Punishment with varying success.