In Elena Ladiá's Essays on Dostoevsky, the contradictions of his characters are emphasized, as well as his relationship with Greece, his passion for gambling, his Euclidean and non-Euclidean spirit, his comparison with Nietzsche, but above all, the secondary types of his novels are highlighted, which are as significant as the protagonists, such as Kyrilov in The Possessed, Ordninov in The Landlady, Smerdyakov in The Brothers Karamazov, Hippolyte Terentyev in The Idiot, the drunk Marmeladov in Crime and Punishment, among others.

Dostoevsky's ideas are inherent in all his characters, whether in a latent form or in an evolved one. These ideas are highlighted in the book along with the characters that represent them.