Woe from Wit
According to Akunin, he mixed several of the most sympathetic heroes of Russian literature to form the Erast Fandorin character. One of these heroes is Chatsky from [[Alexander Griboyedov]]'s "[[Woe from Wit]]", from whom Fandorin inherits his sense of duty: "To serve the cause, not the individuals". Other heroes Erast Fandorin is based upon are Andrei Bolkonski (from [[Leo Tolstoy]]'s "[[War and Peace]]"), [[Prince Myshkin]] (from [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]]'s "[[The Idiot (novel)|The Idiot]]") and [[Pechorin]] (from [[Mikhail Lermontov]]'s "[[A Hero of Our Time]]").