Dostoevsky's The Notes from the Underground is a great read. I found myself laughing uncontrollably at some of the scenes he produced; and considering that the depth of the material Dostoevsky writes about does not heed way for comedy very easily, it became just another example of his literary genius. The book is quit short (roughly 170 pages), but it really did poison my mind for a while. Very deep and very troubling. That said, the Underground Man is Dostoevsky's dark creation that he catered to in later works (which are much longer), and within these works-- The Idiot, in particular--were the answers I needed. For this reason I feel that it is almost necessary to read his subsequent works in order to develop a real understanding of one of the greatest writers to have lived.