The book by Stefano Maria Capilupi compares the plot lines and poetic structures of the novels by F.M. Dostoevsky and A. Manzdoni is revealed in a broader contrast between the “catastrophic” poetics of Dostoevsky (M. M. Bakhtin, D. Lukach, G. Di Giacomo), which in many ways anticipates the psychologism of modern literature, and the historical poetics of Manzoni’s “The Betrothed” as an example of classical European novel. The results of the comparative analysis also expand the field of comparative studies of the European novel of the 19th century, identifying and arguing the possibility of the influence of the novel “The Betrothed” by A. Manzoni on the design of plot lines in the process of creating the last novel by F.M. Dostoevsky.