I managed to read Crime and Punishment in my late 20s. I was a decent read at the time but I wasn't struck by it. In the ~20 years since however, the visuals that were created in my mind while reading it have really stuck with me and have developed. I'm now hoping to be able to go to St Petersburg, just to walk around.

I am by no means in to literature in any significant way, but russian literature truly is something special. I've read a few chapters of War and Peace as well. Very different styles, but there is clearly some commonality in the way the authors use elaborate descriptions to create very robust mental models for the reader. I never feel like I get that in western literature other than some of the stuff like Chatwin and Carra from the 70s.