Chernyshevskii's "What is to be Done?" : A Reevaluation

Chernyshevskii's 1863 novel What is to be Done? has often been dismissed as sociopolitical propaganda.

Dostoevsky reviled it, while Lenin called it an inspiration.

In this re-examination, the author argues that the novel has been misread through a refusal to see the novel as a literary text.