A Hero of Our Time
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]]").