The works of Fyodor Mikhailovich (of course, Dostoevsky!).

You're lucky! My husband is an engineer by education (something in the field of programming), but his work has always been related to journalism. He always seemed to lack a philological education, especially in terms of writing style. I kept making him read, but... he managed to get through Gogol, but didn't really like it. I tried to entice him with medieval erotic stories ("The Decameron," that is), but no luck. I even tried giving him King to read – and that was a failure too. I gave up)))

By the way, Zamyatin also resonated with me. Yesterday I watched the musical "Starmanya," and I kept thinking about "We"... It's scary, of course.