Any Tolstoy fans out there?
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Re: Any Tolstoy fans out there?
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- Fran
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- mouseofcards89
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- Fran
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That's a strange view .... are you referring to his personal longevity (82) or the continuing popularity of his work?mouseofcards89 wrote: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.
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- mouseofcards89
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- Fran
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.... 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 wrote:Personal longevity.
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- mouseofcards89
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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?Fran wrote:.... 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 wrote:Personal longevity.
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
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- Maud Fitch
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Gannon, we know from Thursday Next and the Bookworld that actors who portray the characters come and go.Gannon wrote:....."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.
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
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Silly me, and here I was thinking that the Thursday Next books were fiction.Maud Fitch wrote:Gannon, we know from Thursday Next and the Bookworld that actors who portray the characters come and go.Gannon wrote:....."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.
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!
I take it that you do not like "War and Peace" Maud.