Any Tolstoy fans out there?

[kel]

I think we forget that when we English readers read Russian novels we are reading translated versions that have perhaps been reworked by the translators for ease of reading in English. Therefore, we might be missing the real mood that Tolstoy wishes to create in his novels. I had never really thought about this before, but it puts things in a new perspective for me.

Good point. I recently read Anna Karenina, maybe five years ago which seems recent these days, and found it a much easier read than I had expected and I would have to put it up there with one of my favourite books. Years ago, maybe in my teens, I read War and Peace and remember it as being fairly difficult. This could have been because of my age or because of the particular translation.

I think I might pick up War and Peace and give it a second go.

[Fran]

I think we forget that when we English readers read Russian novels we are reading translated versions that have perhaps been reworked by the translators for ease of reading in English. Therefore, we might be missing the real mood that Tolstoy wishes to create in his novels. I had never really thought about this before, but it puts things in a new perspective for me.

Good point. I recently read Anna Karenina, maybe five years ago which seems recent these days, and found it a much easier read than I had expected and I would have to put it up there with one of my favourite books. Years ago, maybe in my teens, I read War and Peace and remember it as being fairly difficult. This could have been because of my age or because of the particular translation.

I think I might pick up War and Peace and give it a second go.

Oh goodie another Anna Karenina fan .... I love that book.
You should have another go at W & P, I think you are probably right about it being a better read later in life. I reread it again earlier this year & loved it ... strangely it was the war part that I enjoyed most this time round, probably because my knowledge of the 1800's would be much broader than when I first read it many years ago.

-- Tue Jun 19, 2012 7:58 pm --

I think we forget that when we English readers read Russian novels we are reading translated versions that have perhaps been reworked by the translators for ease of reading in English. Therefore, we might be missing the real mood that Tolstoy wishes to create in his novels. I had never really thought about this before, but it puts things in a new perspective for me.

Good point. I recently read Anna Karenina, maybe five years ago which seems recent these days, and found it a much easier read than I had expected and I would have to put it up there with one of my favourite books. Years ago, maybe in my teens, I read War and Peace and remember it as being fairly difficult. This could have been because of my age or because of the particular translation.

I think I might pick up War and Peace and give it a second go.

Oh goodie another Anna Karenina fan .... I love that book.
You should have another go at W & P, I think you are probably right about it being a better read later in life. I reread it again earlier this year & loved it ... strangely it was the war part that I enjoyed most this time round, probably because my knowledge of the 1800's would be much broader than when I first read it many years ago.

Love your avatar

[Phoenix98]

I'm a fan in the sense that I admire his outstanding skill as an author. He has tremendous ability to intertwine subplots, develop his characters, and advance the storyline as lasers running in parallel. In addition, he is extremely entertaining.

I am among the unfortunates who find him difficult to read. For War and Peace, I printed out a list of characters, to which I referred when I failed to recall whom is who. I’m doing the same now as I read Anna Karenina. (This probably won’t be necessary as I chisel away at his bibliography.)

The back and forth motion in War and Peace with the Parts was an intriguing way of moving from war (set forth on the battlefront) to peace (set forth in social settings). I don’t think I’m seeing that format in Anna Karenina.

I am not at all a fan of Tolstoy’s politics. His quasi-rejection of government, and late life rejection of private property and the institution of marriage betray a Marxian fascination. Tolstoy departs from Marx as a pacifist, and actually influenced Ghandi. In that light, though I have nearly complete disdain for Karl Marx, I would regard him as more consistently logical than Tolstoy.

This communist ideology is apparent in War and Peace. I’m guessing it may not be as apparent in Anna Karenina. As War and Peace was released in segments through newspapers over a period of time, the mindset would have been disseminated to the Russian intelligentsia and upper class, thus helping prop up the revolution to come. That is most unfortunate.

[Aloisius12]

Why do you all stick to W&P and AK? There is also Resurrection and quite a number of very profound short novels let alone plays. To those who cannot find hard copies I may send e-books. You will then be still greater fans of L.T., I assure you.

[poonamgupta35]

Anna karenina is one of my all time favorite books. What I found amazing was how Tolstoy was so much sensitive to a woman's feelings. It was hard for me to put the book down in between

[Aloisius12]

Leo Tolstoy is difficult to read in Russian. In Russian we have aphorism is "phrase Tolstoy." This is phrases in 15-20 lines, like a Russian dolls "matryoshka". A few thoughts in one sentence. By the end of phrases you do not remember what was initially. Russian schoolchildren do not like Leo Tolstoy. They do not understand him. Maybe 15 years old is very early for these books.

The idea of Russian schoolchildren disliking L.Tolstoy is, of course, an exaggeration. Or. maybe, I represent a different generation of Russian schoolchildren? As for Tolstoy phrase, it is not his special device to embarass the reader but a conscious masterly method to combine the soliloquy and author's description, the way to not interrupt the stream of thought as it is uninterrupted in real life, and those who do not understand that have not come up to Tolstoy's grandeur. the method, by the way, was highly appreciated by later writers all over the world and widely used by them, sufice it to mention such also classical figures like Henry James, James Joyce and many others.

[MaryV1971]

I really love Tolstoy. I have read Anna Karenina and was astounded at his ability to get into the minds and hearts of his female characters so astutely. I have read the novella Family Happiness and suggest that one as well; it is a very insightful, at times excruciating portrait of a young married couples' disintegration and eventual renewal (well ... sort of renewal). Some insights he had in that work were things I had thought or felt all my life but could not put into words or articulate. I plan to read War and Peace. I enjoyed how in the novel Freedom, Jonathan Franzen has his characters experience the thrill of reading War and Peace, calling it a "near psychedelic experience." Certainly our best authors of today owe much, if not everything, to Tolstoy's penchant for placing the whole world in a novel. Woody Allen made a career out of filming much of the content of Tolstoy novels and projecting it onto modern male female relationships. The life of Tolstoy himself -his obsession with women, his tortured marriage, his dramatic death on the way to a monastery -make for fascinating reading and exploration.

[Phoenix98]

Anna Karenina is probably my all time favorite female character in literature ... a brilliant work that I find myself coming back to again and again.

Fran, I finally finished it.

[primrose777]

I am just starting Anna Karenina, I read War and Peace over 25 years ago and loved it. Just the size of the book is a little daunting

[odinaesir]

I also like reading Leo Tolstoy. the first book I read of his was The Death Of Ivan Ilyich it is a powerful moving book.
Them I went on to read War & Peace.

[Natasha]

Hi,
I am big fan of Tolstoy, especially War and Peace. Actually, I was named after Natasha Rostova, one of the main characters in the novel.
Natasha

[lady_charlie]

Cool! Natasha....
I have read W and P and Anna Karenina and recently started AK again, but got distracted and went on to something else.
I did like them but it was very long ago and I am sure they deserve another look, maybe, as Phoenix says, with a better idea of who is who, eh?
Wouldn't it be interesting to read the great works of the world in their original languages?

[Natasha]

Hi Lady Charlie,
Of course it would be interesting to read the great works in their original languages, it would be amazing experience. I know person who learned Swedish language, just in order to read Stieg Larsson's books The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest.
Natasha

[nikitarenee]

I loved Anna Karenina and agree with you that he has extraordinary insight, but I'm not sure I'd class his as the best. Among the best, absolutely, but having read a bit of Dostoevsky and Nabokov as well, I'd expand that title to the Russians, rather than specifically Tolstoy. I'm not sure if there is a reason for this seemingly innate understanding of human nature (if this were Austria or another nation with a rich history of psychological theory, it would make a bit more sense), but I have yet to find any group of authors who rival the Russians on this point.

[Aloisius12]

I loved Anna Karenina and agree with you that he has extraordinary insight, but I'm not sure I'd class his as the best. Among the best, absolutely, but having read a bit of Dostoevsky and Nabokov as well, I'd expand that title to the Russians, rather than specifically Tolstoy. I'm not sure if there is a reason for this seemingly innate understanding of human nature (if this were Austria or another nation with a rich history of psychological theory, it would make a bit more sense), but I have yet to find any group of authors who rival the Russians on this point.

Try to read Chekhov, Bulgakov and Bunin as well, nikitarenee, if you did not. I have some e-copies for you, if need be.