Besides being, in my view, Dostoevsky’s best novel by far (everyone always says Brothers Karamazov is the greatest, and it is in many ways a more mature work, but it cannot compare with the intensity and insight of C&P), Crime and Punishment is a far less overt and brutal prophecy of modern, autonomous man than, say, The Possessed, and thus all the more psychologically gripping and intellectually compelling. The Possessed is outstanding for debunking all varieties of leftism with unusual honesty about the bloody-mindedness of committed leftists, but it is almost overwhelmed by its own anarchy and cannot offer any hope of redemption to the characters. Stavrogin is appropriately crucified, so to speak, but he does not rise. C&P is a story of sin and repentance, whereas The Possessed is obviously the Gadarene swine in human form, an Animal Farm before Orwell and twice as good.

This is a bit off the topic of Jack Bauer, but there you have it.