If you can get past the annoying main character and his epiphanies this is a really interesting look (albeit obviously sensationalised for the sake of propaganda) at the criminal justice system in Russia at the turn of last century, as well as the obscene gap in living standards between the rich and poor. I think it was quite interesting to see the change in Tolstoy's views in comparison to his earlier works like War and Peace, since they do delve a little into class inequalities, but nothing quite so much as this. It's like Tolstoy wants to share his own little epiphany with us, because I believe he had also renounced his wealth and family by the time he'd completed this book. I think it shows quite clearly what the conditions of pre-communist Russia was like, and why it was so ripe for revolution. Not surprising really, imagine being locked up and having the key thrown away because no-one had bothered to bribe the right people! Or you fancied investigating a new way of looking at politics or religion and ended up being banished to Siberia! I can't help being curious about what the native Siberians thought about having all the undesirables of Western Russian society dumped on them all the time.