What is to be done? Translation: M.R.Katz; Annoted by W.G.Wagner. Introduction M.Katz and W.Wagner

The teacher of a Russian/English literature course I once took assigned us only a single chapter of Chernyshevsky, because he could not in good conscience make us read what he described as "a rather tiresome book". Mainly because I had not yet discovered how to remove lecturers' photocopies from the library, I got hold of a copy of the book and I read it in two days. Chernyshevsky is not at all hard going. I later discovered that one person in twenty ended up reading and liking the book. I hope it's not just the most counter-suggestible person among the twenty.

I can, however, see what the lecturer meant. The book is fiction but the author makes no secret of the fact that it's also propaganda. I can forgive this because (a) the author makes no secret of the fact, and (b) it's largely propaganda in a worthy cause: sexual and social equality. Also, Chernyshevsky is no fool. He doesn't waste his time with blather of the "women are people too" kind, but offers genuine analysis of why society is the way it is. Given when he's writing, I'm impressed. There's a little too much utopian sentiment at the end, but less than you would think... Note this: the central character stages his own death in order to allow his best friend to legally marry his wife when he discovers she's more in love with the friend than with him; he gets the consent of both parties first and the three remain friends. People of the late twentieth century who found themselves in nineteenth-century Russia they might easily behave just the same way. It must have seemed bizaare at the time: but actually, Chernyshevsky knew what he was talking about.

Think of some of the extended essays of George Orwell, or of the more plotless novels of H.G. Wells. Chernyshevsky is at any rate closer to the mark than the latter; although not, of course, as rich in ideas as the former.