The paper dwells on the parallels and convergence points in portraying the characters of Steerforth and Stavrogin in Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Possessed. The present analysis relies on the English language criticism (Loralee McPike, George Katkov, and Nikita Lary) that interprets the mutual influence of the two writers. George Katkov points out the similarity in imaging and plot development in the both novels, whereas Nikita Lary analyzes the parallels of Dostoevsky’s and Dickens’s developmental paths, as well as the dependence of each author on the system of national literature. Loralee McPike presents a new stage in the English language comparative literary studies and states the issue of ‘reverse influence’ and the psychological modeling of the both characters.