Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot, first published in 1868, explores the challenges faced by unconventional individuals in an upper-class society that mimics contemporary Europe while being overwhelmed by Western materialism.

Up from Serfdom: My Childhood and Youth in Russia, 1804–1824, authored by Aleksandr Kikitenko in 1851 but not released until 1975, offers a renowned personal narrative from a young serf. He recounts his experiences within the slave class, working under the control of Russia’s most affluent landowner. Despite Kikitenko's self-education and his eventual career as a teacher, he remains burdened by the constraints of serfdom.

Anna Karenina, serialized between 1875 and 1877 by Leo Tolstoy, tells the tale of a married woman engaged in an affair with a count. The narrative centers on her relationships with these two men and the societal norms they defy in the process.

Sketches from a Hunter’s Album, by Ivan Turgenev, details the author’s journeys across Russia and his encounters with peasants suffering due to their oppression. When first published as a book in 1852, Turgenev was placed under house arrest because of its political implications. Ultimately, these sketches helped draw attention to the emancipation of the serfs.

In Vicissitude of Genre in the Russian Novel: Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons,” Chernyshevsky’s “What Is to Be Done?,” Dostoevsky’s “Demons,” Gorky’s “Mother” (2001), Russell Scott Valentino examines these authors' works and discusses how the genre of “tendentious novels” became the most influential in Russian literature during the 1860s.

First appearing in 1842, Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol narrates the story of a man who arrives in an unfamiliar town, gains the residents' favor, and then orchestrates a scheme to purchase the souls of recently deceased peasants.