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Ivan, the post-Enlightenment, borderline Nietzschean rationalist, converses with the Devil. Dostoyevsky proves to be a penetrating cartographer of evil. He has much to build on Milton, for instance.

Mitya's dream - that the seeds for redemption can be found in dreams.

The "classic" status of a work such as this is distracting. It compels you to approach it with a ten-foot-pole, as it were. This defeats the entire purpose of the work, which is to rack our insides, make it a bit clearer where we really stand on the big questions. For me, the parts to which I found myself unresponsive - which fell on dull ears - have already taught me a great deal about my inner limitations.