Question by Christopher Jose: what should i expect from tolstoys works?
ive read dostoevskys works and am planning on reading more russian literature. but what should i expect from tolstoy? what are his works like compared to dostoevskys ? i recently searched war and peace, which is supposed to be tolstoys major work, and i found few people actually read it, compared to dostoevsky who seems to have a wider audience. why is that? are tolstoysworks somehow superior to tolstoys?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Vamp
“War And Peace” is very, very long – 1,500 pages.
It is much more dense than most books written these days so people find the level of concentration required hard.
There are a number of sections which do not appear to advance the story but which are, in fact, important in understanding the book. People are put off by the history. (The same problem occurs with the sociopolitical aspects in Hugo)
Interestingly, Dostoevsky’s major words were published as serials. They are shorter and, because of the original format, have to keep the pace and action moving. They had to be things to which people would come back.
I would start with one of Tolstoy’s shorter works, probably “Anna Karenina”, before trying “War and Peace”
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