Any Tolstoy fans out there?

[Timpane]

I have a compilation publication where he discuses theology. It is intriguing to glimpse how exactly he concerns his interior labours to his characters. Very couple of writers warrant to recorded in the identical judgment imho.

[Malachi]

I am reading Anna Karenina at the moment and I read Redemption a few years ago.I'm always amazed that Tolstoy writing can engage me so much today from such an obscure setting(russia 100 years ago).

[anu_]

I have just begun reading Anna Karenina, and I am loving it. Tolstoy managed to put a smile on my face in the first few pages itself, with Oblonskys' household in evident storm by the wayward ways of the man of the house.

[Louie]

He's timeless, like most of those Russians of that period.

[El_greco]

What about him almost turning muslim? Anyone know about that?. I think his christian fundamentalist side is overreacted, he was a religious fundamentalist of something more of a Tolstoy church if you ask me

[San1968]

I read Anna Karenina about 20 years ago and it is still one of my favourite books. It is one of about 5 books that I would say were life changing for me. I know that sounds melodramatic but I mean it illustrated for me what great literature is and that you don't need a phD to read the classics or authors who are considered 'high brow'. My husband gave me a special edition of it for my 40th birthday a very special and important book to me. Love the story and the writing - did not like the main characters but I felt very powerful emotions for them.

[Fran]

I'm still listening to War & Peace on my MP3 ... it will probably take me forever as I only listen to it when I go walking and I'm not a marathon walker! But I'm loving it all over again.

[mouseofcards89]

War and Peace was a work of considerable merit. Anna Karenina deals far too sparingly with the woman question, and nobody else seems to understand when Tolstoy was being funny (i.e Vronsky's last horse race), but it works. The Awakening and The Death Of Ivan Ilyitch are the best things he did. For those of you who have made it to the end of Karenina, you will notice the similarities between Karenina's fate and Tolstoy's own. He died a kind of postponed intellectual crib death with the dying breath of his greatest contemporary lying beside him. Tolstoy's longevity was ridiculous. He lived to write sniveling commentaries against war with impunity, hiding behind a vast fortune which could have capitulated a certain writer of far greater ability to an even greater legacy. He was whining about the realities of war when Dostoevsky was over twenty years dead, having passed away on the eve of his greatest triumph.

[Fran]

War and Peace was a work of considerable merit. Anna Karenina deals far too sparingly with the woman question, and nobody else seems to understand when Tolstoy was being funny (i.e Vronsky's last horse race), but it works. The Awakening and The Death Of Ivan Ilyitch are the best things he did. For those of you who have made it to the end of Karenina, you will notice the similarities between Karenina's fate and Tolstoy's own. He died a kind of postponed intellectual crib death with the dying breath of his greatest contemporary lying beside him. Tolstoy's longevity was ridiculous. He lived to write sniveling commentaries against war with impunity, hiding behind a vast fortune which could have capitulated a certain writer of far greater ability to an even greater legacy. He was whining about the realities of war when Dostoevsky was over twenty years dead, having passed away on the eve of his greatest triumph.

That's a strange view .... are you referring to his personal longevity (82) or the continuing popularity of his work?

[mouseofcards89]

Personal longevity.

[Fran]

Personal longevity.

.... wow, why do you think 82 is ridiculous? My mother is 88 & has no intention of 'shuffling off the mortal coil' anytime soon. I happen to think it was a remarkable achievement to survive to that age give the times Tolstoy liven in as regards wars, medicine etc.

[mouseofcards89]

Personal longevity.

.... wow, why do you think 82 is ridiculous? My mother is 88 & has no intention of 'shuffling off the mortal coil' anytime soon. I happen to think it was a remarkable achievement to survive to that age give the times Tolstoy liven in as regards wars, medicine etc.

I am not denigrating age, or the ‘venerable ancients’ who have had the audacity to live past 40, as the Underground Man termed them. What irritates me is that, five years before his death, Tolstoy had become Karmazinov, the parody of Turgenev that Dostoevsky illustrated so aptly in “Demons.” He railed on with impunity against the Tsar and the social hierarchy and war and was lauded for it. This would have been fine and well had he believed in his own product, but no. Shortly before setting out on his final pilgrimage, he renounced all of his work and became a populist. How am I supposed to respect the work of a writer who doesn’t even vouch for his own material?
Tolstoy outlived his utility as an artist. Dostoevsky was on the threshold of sixty when he died, and his magnum opus, “The Brothers Karamazov,” was meant to be little more than a prequel. Yet, he died in extreme poverty before he had the chance to write the book that could have changed the course of history. Had he been given another five years, he could have prevented the Bolshevik uprising. By 1905, Tolstoy was whining petulantly about the realities of war. Had he skimmed “Notes From Underground,” he would have understood why people go to war and would have devoted his considerable potential and means to something greater. If Dostoevsky had possessed a tenth of his resources and means, he could have accomplished far more than Tolstoy ever dreamed of...but then, had that been the case, then Dostoevsky would not have been Dostoevsky. Nonetheless, Tolstoy lived too long. So, 82 is ridiculous in Tolstoy’s case because 59 was even more ridiculous in Dostoevsky’s.

[Gannon]

I am a big fan of Tolstoy even though I do not know much about the man himself. I can only base my admiration on "War an Peace". It is the only book I have read of his, in fact I have read it twice and absolutely love it. It is so long that I have to keep reading it every year of so because my memory is so bad. Its like reading a new book every time I go back to it.

[Maud Fitch]

....."War and Peace".....in fact I have read it twice and absolutely love it. It is so long that I have to keep reading it every year or so because my memory is so bad. It's like reading a new book every time I go back to it.

Gannon, we know from Thursday Next and the Bookworld that actors who portray the characters come and go.
Every replacement actor interprets the character in a slightly different way so each time you read the book your mind recognises the change but dismisses it as forgetfulness. (Only Jasper Fforde readers will understand this comment).

Also, I have read "War and Peace" and will never read it again!

[Gannon]

....."War and Peace".....in fact I have read it twice and absolutely love it. It is so long that I have to keep reading it every year or so because my memory is so bad. It's like reading a new book every time I go back to it.

Gannon, we know from Thursday Next and the Bookworld that actors who portray the characters come and go.
Every replacement actor interprets the character in a slightly different way so each time you read the book your mind recognises the change but dismisses it as forgetfulness. (Only Jasper Fforde readers will understand this comment).

Also, I have read "War and Peace" and will never read it again!

Silly me, and here I was thinking that the Thursday Next books were fiction.

I take it that you do not like "War and Peace" Maud.